


Peeled Vessel

by mewbirb



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, I think the main thing of this story is family interaction, Post-Dream No More Ending (Hollow Knight), also Hollow has to actually get used to their arm being gone, basically everyone badly needs therapy but you already knew that, feelings about abuse and trauma, grimmchild is cat, lots of sad but also lots of cute, not really sure where this ride is going but it's fun, the sibs are precious and I want them to have family time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:22:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 40,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24156589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mewbirb/pseuds/mewbirb
Summary: Defeating and consuming the Radiance spurred Little Ghost to completely discard their old shell.  Now they have to deal with the growing pains of molting and scary new abilities, and so do their poor siblings.
Comments: 115
Kudos: 407





	1. Hello Abyss

**Author's Note:**

> PSA: I've come to the realization that people don't always feel like it's okay to comment on stories before they've caught up. And this particular one may be hard for some to stay caught up with. So I want you guys to know it's okay to do that if you have things to say, and it's okay to speculate what will happen even if it's already been contradicted past where you are! I love liveblog kinda stuff!
> 
> I cried a lot at this ending in the game. Then I wrote Afraid of the Dark, in which Radiance described them as molting. And then this started happening.
> 
> Also, Grimmchild in my game is stage 3 (NKG is a fast bastard), so that's what I'm imagining here.

Hornet stared at the broken mask for what felt like a lot longer than it actually was. Her siblings were very strange creatures and this one had already died several times before; why couldn't they come back now? Yet these remains were all there was of the one she'd named and tested and aided and finally trusted with her own life, and there was no sign of the unlucky one they'd tried to help.

She'd _named_ the little vessel... why? How did that even happen? How long had it taken her to realize? Names had a purpose; they weren't to be handed out willy-nilly to things that didn't stay with you. That only made it hurt more when they left.

At least Hallownest was saved, right? Even if only in the sense that the dead finally had peace. She hadn't lost the entire rest of her family for nothing… somehow that didn't really feel better. It wasn't fair that she'd been occupying the same space as her siblings during the final battle she'd enabled, and come out apparently uninjured while they...

Well, being alone with her thoughts clearly wasn't doing any good. Selfish feelings weren't right for a protector. Vessels were never meant to have lives or form relationships like regular bugs anyway; getting attached to any of them, naming them, was a mistake she should've learned from a long time ago.

As she turned to leave, her foot caught a small object and kicked it a bit in front of her. One of the charms the little ghost always carried around. Specifically the one with the face of their winged demon grub, who also had taken part in the battle. _GRIMMCHILD,_ the back of the charm read in fancy engraved font.

Gripped by the need to see if it had survived, yet nervous about what would happen with either outcome, Hornet pinned the charm to her cloak. A flash of light appeared from the charm, and the Grimmchild emerged, proceeding immediately to curl up on the ground and lick its tail.

Hornet chuckled. The little pyro was actually kind of cute like this. Given the fondness it and the little ghost had apparently had for each other, too, she supposed this odd creature was basically family (and honestly at this point she'd be quite surprised to find a normal, not-creepy bug in the family).

It finished carefully preening its wings, and then before she could react, flapped up to curl around her shoulders and gave a tiny nuzzle. She had to wonder how aware it was of the current situation.

The Grimmchild chittered softly and slithered back to the ground, where it investigated the broken mask. Hornet felt a pang in her heart as she watched it whimper and pitifully attempt to headbutt the halves back together. Tears pushed their way out of her eyes and she sunk to her knees. The child wormed its head under her hand and she scratched absently, and with no one around but this little creature now expressing the same grief, soon gave up on stopping the tears.

A sharp shiver. Something was wrong here. Darkness creeping in. BAD. TIME TO GO. In a single motion, Hornet picked up the child and snapped to her feet. She ran, leaped over the void tendrils, tightly clutching the protesting child, ignoring the stabs of its needle-like teeth into her arms.

The void spread around them. They were trapped. Hornet shifted Grimmchild entirely into one arm so she could unsheath her needle.

Grimmchild took this opportunity to wriggle free and fly into the air.

"No, get back…" Hornet quickly reconsidered, swiping away a void tendril that had wrapped around the arm previously holding the child. "Actually, save yourself if you can!"

It weaved around the shadows, furiously spitting fireballs, while Hornet did the same except obviously without the fireballs.

The void shot up and enveloped the child, and it was gone.

"No!" Hornet cried. An icy claw gripped her heart. She'd lost another one. This couldn't be happening.

The chill spread throughout her body. No. She'd gotten distracted. Stupid! This is what happens when you care about an individual! 

The void covered her, and then there was nothing.

___

Her vision was coming back, along with her general sense of existing. There was little in the way of light here, but enough to tell she was somewhere else. Somewhere she'd never seen before, at least from this angle.

The lighting seemed to radiate from a lighthouse shining across a black sea. The ground seemed to be made of… _oh._ Her stomach turned. Suffice to say, nothing was _living_ here.

Her eye caught a familiar spot of color on the, uh… the ground a small distance away. She sighed in relief; not only was Grimmchild here with her, it seemed to be no worse for wear. Well, besides the terrible indignity of _yet again_ having to smooth its ruffled fur back into place. Typical caterpillar (not that she had room to judge, with her own longtime habit of being the same way about her cloak, but she liked to think she'd developed some sense of appropriate timing for that kind of thing).

Well, okay, so they were both safe. They were in the Abyss. The question now became: why? Were her siblings involved in this summoning? They had to be. That was the only thing at the moment that even hinted at any kind of explanation. Unless she and Grimmchild were dead and didn't know it. Was that possible?

"Hello?" she called cautiously, gripping her needle in case she attracted the wrong attention.

Some shades milled about in the darker areas. Whether they would've been hostile was a question Grimmchild didn't give a chance to be answered.

One shade, roughly twice the size of the others, turned to look at Hornet. She pointed her needle at it. It ignored the needle and dashed directly at her. She jabbed it. It flinched and looked at the bits of void floating off the wound. It looked at Hornet again. It just hovered there, like it was waiting for her to recognize…

"It's you, isn't it?"

The shade launched forward and hugged its sister. She shuddered, but nonetheless hugged it back.


	2. Family Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hornet looks forward to a bright future with her loved ones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Change log: added very cute baby Hornet flashback

It was impossible to describe how it felt to touch raw void. In the vessel's usual form, it just felt like "bug but cold." The shade was like… a weird mix of all states of matter? It made Hornet's mind feel like static when she tried to think about it. But also… she could feel its emotions. She'd suspected it had them on some level, but couldn't really tell before. Right now it felt like its whole body was crying with joy from being back with her.

"I'm glad to see you too, but… that can't be why you brought me here," she said, pulling away from the hug. "Why would you not just come back up like this, if that was the case? Do you realize I thought I was never going to see you again, or how bad your chosen method of contact scared me? I thought my life was in serious danger, not to mention that of your child, you absolute gremlin!"

Her sibling touched her again, transmitting feelings that formed more specific ideas, even mental pictures. _Sorry, did want you, yes. Safe with you. But also. Brought big sibling here. _

_So that's what happened to that one._ "Lead me to them."

The shade- Little Ghost; the nickname was frighteningly apt now, besides them (and especially their horns) having grown in size- paused to nuzzle and pet the overjoyed Grimmchild squeaking and purring and wriggling around, before turning and waving for Hornet to follow.

Their destination wasn't far. The Hollow Knight lay on the ground, free of any visible infection but still heavily damaged from it, a hypnotically undulating puddle of void around their body.

 _Safe here. Home. Void protects. Save them,_ Ghost explained.

"Right…" Hornet looked at the Hollow Knight, and then back at Ghost with the Grimmchild purring away around their shoulders. "If there's anything I can do for them, I'll be glad to, but I must stress that void medicine is not a concept with which I have any familiarity. In short, if you want my help, I'll need yours."

Grimmchild nuzzled the shade's cheek, and they reached up and gave their small friend a good chin scratch.

Hornet cleared her throat loudly and glared at them. "If you would please focus on the more serious matter here…!"

Ghost nodded and floated over to tap the eye of her needle, and then tugged at the large vessel's cloak. 

Hornet rubbed her temples and sighed. Had the Radiance fried their void-brain? "Ghost, _please,_ this is very much not the time for some clothing fix-"

The cold void hand was instantly around her wrist, and again its feelings flowed into her mind.

 _Not what I mean._ Anxiety about being judged for a misunderstanding. An image of silk bandages wrapped around the wounds. _V oid heals other void, but doesn't stay in place. Can't get it to. It's me but I don't know it that well. Sorry. _

It figured they'd be taking action to solve a serious problem with no real idea how anything worked. Such had been their entire journey up to this point, really. Of course, her learning to trust them had led to them eradicating the infection instead of merely replacing their predecessor and perpetuating the cycle...

"All right." Proper fabric bandages like they'd imagined would take too long to make from scratch, but she could do that cocoon thing she did with prey… well, she could do webs.

Unfortunately, she couldn't touch the not-solid void without her hands freezing and her mind going fuzzy. This would be an excellent defense against predators, except there weren't any in this entire place, so it only hampered her ability to help.

"Ghost, I need you to do something about this."

They floated closer, and slowly, cautiously, a light shone from their eyes, clearing the void from where Hornet needed to work. The Hollow Knight flinched and jerked their cloak over their face.

Hornet stared at the smaller sibling.

_I ate the light. I think it gave me more powers. _

The Radiance was a god of both light and dreams; maybe that was also why they were communicating like this.

It also explained why the Hollow Knight… or simply Hollow, as she remembered calling them as a child, though she hesitated to name them now without being sure if they would live (and while it obviously wasn't easy to permanently kill a vessel, she'd rather not find out the hard way what could do it)… had startled at the light even though it was gentle.

"It's all right," she told them, rubbing their horn where it tore through the cloak. "She's gone. We got rid of her."

They relaxed a little, but didn't really seem convinced. Ghost toned down the light just enough to still keep the roaming void at bay, also expressing concern about Hornet's ability to see, but she assured them that growing up in Deepnest had made her comfortable with working in the dark.

As she worked, her mind wandered to long ago. 

_ "That's not its name, you know," the Pale King told her. _ _ "It's only a descriptive title."  _

_ "But you're still calling it one thing," little Hornet reasoned. "That's what a name is." _

_ The king sighed and shook his head. "A name is a gateway to an emotional relationship. You must remember, the Hollow Knight exists for a purpose that will take it away from us, and we'll never see it again, if all goes right." He averted his gaze and paused. "I don't want you setting yourself up for heartbreak like this. ...And it's not like it can love you back anyway." That last part sounded strained.  
_

_ The spiderling, as children tend to do, mainly lived in the moment as well as her own imagination, and thus couldn't yet grasp the weight of what her father was telling her.  
_

_ The Pale King walked away with his head down, and Hornet turned to hug Hollow's leg. The vessel wasn't yet full size, but was still significantly bigger than her. It crouched down to return the hug.  
_

_ "Don't worry, Hollow. Even if you don't have feelings, that's not your fault and I'm not gonna let you get taken away over it." She scampered across the room, crouched into a fighting stance, and whipped out the crochet hook she'd stolen from her mother. "Shaw!" She lunged forward and triple-slashed the air. "Bad dad! You don't mess with my friend!" She whirled back and forth, pretending to be both the defeated Pale King and herself.  
_

_ "Nooo, you've defeated me! Please have mercy!" _

_ "Fine, but only if you let me and Hollow stay together." _

_ "Yes! Anything you want!" _

_ "Good. Also let me have ice cream for breakfast." _

_ "Okay!" _

_ She stood up and turned back to the vessel, very proud of herself. "See? That's what I'm gonna do if he tries to take you." _

Back in the present, she finished webbing up Hollow's wounds, containing the extra void meant to help them heal. So, uh… now what? They were safe for now, but she doubted they'd be content to stay down here once they were stronger. The Radiance's effect on them had already made it clear that isolation was not kind to them. And while Hornet was confident in her own ability to make the climb out of here, she was less sure about theirs, especially if they were to try it before sufficiently recovering.

_Just leave,_ she told herself. _There's no food down here._ _You can come back later to check on them. You can't force them to not make stupid choices while you take care of your own health._

She turned to go, but something grabbed her cloak. She turned back around. Hollow gripped the fabric with their fingers and looked up at her in a way that was very definitely a plea to stay, and oh no she was thinking of them with a name…

She sighed and sat down with them, propping her back against their large body and draping an arm between their horns. Ghost took this as an invitation to settle down and snuggle next to her, and Grimmchild shoved its way around her shoulders like a warm fuzzy neck pillow. Apparently this was her life now. It could be worse.

___

Ghost wandered through the halls, taking time to marvel at the ornate palace architecture and the thick cobwebs covering much of it. The whines of buzzsaws could be heard from somewhere in the distance. Colorless bees buzzed back and forth and settled on their webs, as they do. White ashes drifted down from the ceiling. A primal aspid hovered mindlessly into a wall of thorns and exploded.

They found a dark tunnel and ventured in. A light shone around them as they walked, though they didn't have their lumafly lantern. After a while, the floor of the tunnel dipped down under a stream of sludgy water. Great, their nice white fur was going to be ruined. They waded through anyway.

The farther they went into the tunnel, the more plant life grew from the walls, until it opened into a wide clearing.

A needle struck them through the wing.

"Come no closer, Radiance!"

Hornet stood in the middle of the clearing, catching her needle as it shot back to her and pointing it at them again.

_Wait, I'm not… it's me! Your sibling that you like! I killed the Radiance! You even helped me do it!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how many Animorphs fans are reading, but Ghost's way of talking here is like how the Leerans do it because I love the idea of telepathy that isn't just "regular talking but inside your head"


	3. Family Feud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes have a lot on their minds. Hornet deserves a break (even if she doesn't think so).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who read chapter 2 before I added Hornet's flashback, go check it now. You'll be glad you did. Writing that scene made me die of cute.

She'd been right to worry. If it was possible to dream about the Radiance even now, even deep down in the dwelling of darkness itself, there was no way she could leave her siblings alone. Unless they would actually be safer if she left? What was the right choice here? Was there one? Why did she even have that dream when she hadn't previously been…

Okay. Deep breaths. She had to go clear her head and get some food, and then talk to them.  


Hollow gave her a gentle headbutt. She looked at them, and they looked back at her, cocking their head slightly.  


And now she was frustrated with herself because they were concerned about her when they should be focusing on their own healing and they deserved a nicer name than the designation that had turned out to be false and gotten them into this whole mess in the first place when they just wanted to help everyone, and she was in no state of mind to even try to sort that out.  


"Ah… I'll be fine. I just need some space." She gave them a quick pat and walked away.  


Hollow looked at Ghost, who pointedly avoided eye contact and stared at the ground. The larger sibling gave a huff and shifted into a semi-sitting position, carefully but still not without waves of pain, and put their hand around the smaller one.  


_ You did something, didn't you?  _ The question carried a curious tone rather than an accusatory one. 

Ghost was making an active effort to avoid answering. 

_ You can't hide it, you know. You're not good at that.  
_

This was true; Ghost hadn't had the upbringing that would've given them a pressing urge to hide things, and they certainly hadn't already learned proper control of their odd new powers. Their form of telepathy meant that it was easy for others to see thoughts they didn't necessarily want to share.  


_ You were in her dream. She saw you. But not as you. She called you… a different name.  
_

_ But you know it's me, right? You know I'd never infect anyone.  
_

_ I know you'd never want to infect anyone. I don't know if we can be sure it won't happen anyway. I don't know how voluntary it even was for the… aaah… well, for Her.  _ Hollow felt an ache in their chest that had nothing to do with the multiple stab wounds there.  _ I know you came a long way to help me. I felt good, for the first time in countless years, when I got to help you. I really do want to trust you.  
_

_ So you… really are saying you don't trust me. Because of what I can do. Because of how I saved you and Hornet and everyone else. _ There were tears coating and furiously dripping off the mind-words. An image of the two vessels in the Black Egg, orange fog everywhere, Ghost delivering a killing blow directly to their own sibling and absorbing the entire infection. It hurt them to even conjure this image.  _ Would this have been better? _

Hollow didn't know how to respond. Of course that wouldn't be better. Just… unbelievable that they would even go there. They moved their hand up to pinch their forehead in exasperation, which only resulted in searing pain from where their mask was cracked. That wasn't a good idea. 

_ I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you.  
_

Hollow had to wait for the pain to die down before they could reply, which was making Ghost more anxious, clinging to their sibling's arm.  


_ No… that was my fault. But you wouldn't have shown me that if you weren't trying to hurt me. _

___

  
  


The change of scenery really was doing wonders for Hornet's mood, as had the act of hunting, and the hot spring water now was just amazing. She took some bites of her freshly-caught dirtcarver, crispy from Grimmchild's fireball and refreshingly free of infection flavor, and stretched out in the water. 

Grimmchild splashed and mewed happily, and paddled over for a head scratch. Hornet indulged. Then she gave it a playful splash. It retorted with a squeak of mock offense and a return splash, followed by an affectionate headbutt. She smiled and resumed petting.  


Hornet couldn't remember the last time she'd allowed herself to just have fun or enjoy someone else's company. It might not have been since she was a child. She'd long since learned that "the good of the kingdom" was the most important thing in her life, and that anytime she loved someone, she should be expecting to lose them, very possibly for the purpose of "the greater good." This meant there was little room to feel worthy of any happiness for herself.  


This point in time, though, in a familiar hot spring with an adorable friend… maybe this was okay, just for a while. Her siblings were  _ probably  _ still relatively alive. Right?

And the dream… there was probably some other explanation. She recalled Ghost using their new light power which they'd basically said was from the Radiance. It stood to reason, then, that they also would have natural access to dreams. Why she would've seen the Radiance, though… well, a full stomach and calm state of mind made it much easier to think of talking with them about that. Perhaps the recent events, plus the general environment of the Abyss, had just been getting to her. In that case, it may not even be worth mentioning and would only cause undue panic… no, she had a responsibility to make sure any possible danger toward her charges was taken seriously.  


Which also meant she should be getting back to them soon. She climbed out of the water and shook herself off before putting her cloak back on, then slung the silk-cocooned dirtcarver onto her back and beckoned Grimmchild. It just crouched lower into the water, only the top half of its head sticking out. She shrugged and started walking in the direction of the tram.  


About halfway there, Grimmchild teleported onto the ground next to her, cold and wet and quite outraged at being rudely pulled from the warm bath it had clearly wanted to stay in, and gave her a good hard chomp on the leg, causing her to reflexively kick it away and fall over. The two glared at each other for a moment while Hornet rubbed the bite marks to apply pressure.  


"I'm sorry that you feel personally affronted, but sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice our own wants when others depend on us." She stood up and dusted off her cloak. "You'll be fortunate to not have to learn that the same way I did at your size. Besides, I did give you the chance to come out on your own."

Grimmchild growled, then seemed to realize how ridiculous it looked, all dripping like, well, a drenched moth, and shook out the excess water so it could puff up its fur. Hornet just walked past, and Grimmchild huffed, gave its tail a few furious licks, and flapped after her.

___

  
  


Standing at the entrance to the Abyss, staring down into it, Hornet gulped. Even with her acrobatic prowess, this would not be a safe descent, and in addition to that, the place just gave off an especially forbidding sort of energy which hadn't been as noticeable when she was already inside it but was palpable from the vantage point of the kingdom proper. Coming up, though tricky and slow, had been easier. She had more control when ascending.

She threaded her needle, took a deep breath, and leapt.

___

  
  


She reached the floor of the Abyss in time to catch Ghost attempting to get close to Hollow while the latter tried to move away, doubled over and panting heavily, and both of them were attempting to avoid looking at each other. As soon as they saw her, they plopped down together as though they were both completely innocent, but continued to awkwardly look away from each other.  


She sighed and walked towards them. "Can I assume you two have an explanation as to why your ability to act civilized would disappear as soon as I leave you alone?"

Hollow rolled onto their side that still had an arm, and reached out in her direction. They stared at her and then tilted their head slightly towards Ghost, as if to say "They started it…"

Ghost gave them a smack and then turned away again, which pretty much confirmed that that was the message.  


"Absolute children, I swear… it's only a good thing Grimmchild came with me; otherwise one of you would be ablaze and the gravesite of the rest of our siblings desecrated and you'd still just be jabbing at each other." She sat down between them. "Now if you two can act with any amount of maturity for five seconds, there's something we need to have a serious talk about."

Hollow stared silently, reminding her that they didn't seem able to communicate in the same way as Ghost. She paused for a moment, then pushed Ghost between herself and Hollow. The two vessels looked at her, then at each other, then away from each other.  


"Oh, just stop it," Hornet hissed. "Whatever you're fighting about, you're going to have to…" She trailed off, noticing Grimmchild intently watching the drama while munching on the dirtcarver.  


"Just stay here and do nothing, both of you," she told her siblings, backing away while giving them a stern stare, and then turned around and went to retrieve the dirtcarver.  


Grimmchild hissed, but didn't make a move to stop her from picking up the food.  


"Were you going to eat the rest of this, or did you just want to watch a fight?"

Not receiving an answer, she carried the food back to the two vessels, who miraculously had not murdered each other during the few seconds her back was turned.  


"Here. I… actually don't know if either of you can eat this, and there's comparatively not a lot left, but it might help your moods."

They examined the food. Hollow nosed it towards Ghost, who just shrugged and backed away. Could they eat in that form? Well, they did eat a whole god, apparently; that probably would tide anyone over for a while.  


Hornet cringed as Hollow's uninjured eye seemed to bleed, and the void bleeding out sort of swirled together and poked around on the dirtcarver and… took bites? 

Once it was done, it receded back into the eye socket. Hornet stared, speechless. Hollow looked at her and shrugged their armless shoulder.  


"Ah… well. Okay then." Hornet shuddered and brushed her hands down her cloak. "That was rather… something… shall we get down to business now?"


	4. Cabin Fever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone needs therapy, the kids are bored, and Hornet has no room to criticize other people about fire.

Huddling with her technically-not-alive family members in order to properly converse with them, in the middle of an abandoned graveyard, Hornet couldn't help but get the feeling she was initiating some kind of spooky occult ritual. Though she'd been enamored with such ideas in her childhood, that had mainly been in the context of making up stories to scare her friends. It was fun exactly because they all knew how dangerous it could be to attempt these rituals. You could get possessed and die.

It had stopped being fun when the infection started possessing her friends. When it took all of them regardless of any rituals. When her mother and sibling were taken away with the use of magical rituals.

On the other hand, she also remembered the awe she'd felt at finding out said sibling was a reanimated corpse. She hadn't known back then the true extent of her father's actions regarding this, so to her child mind, it was simply "the coolest thing ever!" Furthermore, unlike the corpse creepers and most of the fantastical story zombies (which also became less fun as the infection started feeling more like a real thing), Hollow had been, and still was, a mellow and friendly sort of creature; she'd never worried about them causing harm to her. Ghost had taken a while to earn her trust, but they never hurt her either except when she'd attacked them first.

Creepy though the void siblings were, unnervingly empty as they always appeared, they were good people; they'd just been dealt a very sad and weird hand in life.

"Now then. I need to stress, first and foremost, that this very well could be harmless and I don't wish to scare you. However, in the interest of preparing for possible danger…" This was harder to say than she'd expected. "I dreamed about her. You know who I mean."

Hollow nodded. _We are aware. That's… actually why we were fighting._

"Oh." 

This shouldn't have been a surprise, given that she'd already thought about Ghost being involved.

_Yeah… that was me in there. I didn't go there on purpose. I didn't mean to look like her, but I did. I don't want to be her! I don't want you to be scared of me. I just want to be with you guys._

"Ghost. Calm down. This is just something I need to know about. If it was you, then we should be okay."

 _Should. Yes._ Hollow hesitated to make their feelings known, but especially through the field of Ghost's weird emotion telepathy, it wasn't difficult to sense the nervousness and the shame of being nervous at all, let alone about someone they cared for and should be able to trust, and they shouldn't even have any feelings but everyone already knew they did… _Doesn't mean we are._

Ghost was presently shrouded in such an intense despair as to make them unapproachable. They'd gone from not really knowing how to care about others, to forming bonds with people only to end up losing them; their closest friend had vanished with no trace but his nail stuck into the ground; another friend had been fatally skewered in front of them after a tag-team battle; couldn't even show their own mother how they felt because she'd been counting on them to be empty and they couldn't bear the thought of making her sad, and now one of their three remaining family members was afraid of them...

This was a lot. Each of them had their own mental turmoil to wrestle with; they wouldn't be able to sustain each other's. None of them were made for that. All three fell away from the huddle.

"Okay…" Hornet panted. "Perhaps… we should consider some sort of additional help. Or decompress and try again at a later time."

The other two nodded, and Hollow collapsed, thoroughly exhausted. Definitely best to leave them alone and let them sleep. Ghost drifted over to Grimmchild and sat down, and the winged larva crawled into their lap and stretched up to nuzzle their chest.

___

Hollow didn't want to sleep. They knew they needed to, and had no energy to do anything else. Illegal thoughts crowded their head. All thoughts were illegal. _Do not think._

They wanted comfort. Someone by their side to protect them, stroke their horns, hold their hand, tell them it would be okay. Except they were the one who was supposed to protect everyone else. Their own life didn't matter, and it wasn't okay to burden the others with their own dangerous defect. _Do not speak._

Ah, but the fact was that their siblings were taking the trouble to care for them despite being perfectly aware of said defect. Almost like… love, but without the imposition of an impossible promise? Was that okay?

 _Do not hope._ They'd been loved before, and look how that ended up. Even besides failing at their one purpose because of making anyone think they deserved love…

Memories of little Hornet clinging to their cloak and begging tearfully for them not to go. Being near and doing nice things for them as much as possible in hopes that they'd decide to stay, as though that was a decision they were allowed to make. Trying to help them hide from the king so he wouldn't be able to take them. Eventually just… refusing to look at them and telling them to just go already. They'd had to watch all of this without showing any care for her pain. Actively forcing their sympathy under the metaphorical rug when she most needed comfort.

The Pale King. Technically their father. They weren't supposed to think of him like that. He was the king and they were his knight. He couldn't love them like a child, but he did. He tried to act like he didn't, but even if the act fooled everyone else, the vessel could see clearly how it tortured him, and again, up until the end, they'd had to ignore the anguish of a loved one.

They couldn't go through that again. Yet, it nauseated them to think of having to and refusing. The only reason they existed was to be a sacrifice; acting like their own life mattered outside of serving their people would be nothing more than pointless cruelty on their part. If they had to feel anything, it should be gratitude for getting to live at all when they should've just died once and stayed that way like everyone else.

It didn't even make sense for something made of nothing to mean anything to anyone else.

_Do not…_

_…_

They weren't supposed to dream. They dreamed of dark colors and vague ideas of hot springs and the palace.

___

Ghost, in all their well-developed and not at all too-nosy-for-their-own-good wisdom, felt a burning need to go check on Hollow, make sure they were sleeping well, assure them that they were safe.

"No."

They turned around.

"I know how you feel." Hornet shuddered. "Far more vividly than I was prepared to. But I don't think any of us wants to see what would happen if that moth were to appear to them, even if it isn't really her."

They knew she was right. Not that they'd tell her that, of course. But what else was there to do here? The dark was their home; the void protected them, now that it knew they were part of it. However, void grew restless without light, just as the light-seeking bugs did when there was no darkness to allow them to sleep. Was that perhaps why the infection caused aggression in its victims? Was that why the Radiance herself had been so angry?

As well, there was little down here in the way of soul to consume (actually none, unless they wanted to climb, in which case they risked injury on all the jagged, fang-like rocks). Soul was a form of light, and while technically possible for a void creature to survive without, it never felt safe to go around without any, and usually wasn't.

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed since they'd defeated the Radiance, come down here with their big sibling, and summoned Hornet and the tagalong Grimmchild. Then again, it was also impossible to discern the passage of time anywhere in Hallownest. It didn't feel like they'd been here long, except it also felt like forever? They'd gotten used to going just anywhere they wanted, never spending more time than they felt like in the same place (except Crystal Peak; any time spent there was too much. It was pretty, yeah, but something was just deeply _wrong_ with that place).

Ah… speaking of Crystal Peak, now that the infection was gone, did that mean Myla was okay now? They had to check on her! But then, she did seem to get worse each time they saw her, and she'd tried to kill them the last time; how much damage had it done to her body at that point? How bad had it gotten since then? If she was dead, if sparing her had only prolonged her suffering, did they want to know that? 

Why had they spared her in the first place, when they had no problem cutting down every other aggressive infected bug? Because they already knew her from early in their journey, she was their friend, and they'd had an idea to save her.

_"An idea instilled…"_

Their mother's words about the Hollow Knight… they had to visit their mother, too, and let her know they were okay and her other child was rescued and she didn't need to worry anymore about them not being empty. Maybe they'd go find Ogrim and bring him. They knew she'd love to see him too (thanks to their attempted fart joke with the Defender's Crest that didn't go at all as planned), and he'd be fun to have along on the trip anyway.

With any luck, maybe Quirrel would even be around somewhere. But that was maybe too much to hope for… sure would be great to see him again, though.

Okay, so how were they to get out of the Abyss? How had they gotten out before? Also, how long before Hollow would be ready to get moving? Couldn't ask them, not yet. Ah. Couldn't keep sitting around here either, though. Needed to distract from the itching. Stop thinking about it. Thinking about it made it worse. How do you stop thinking about something when being aware that you need to just pushes it more firmly to the front of your mind?

They felt naked and cold, too, like any touch would bring on a blinding, burning sting no matter how many times that had been proven wrong. The thought of going back into their old shell, though, was unpleasant. Cramped. Stifled air. Need to stretch! (Also they were pretty sure the thing was broken beyond repair anyway… oh boy, and Hornet had to see it like that, didn't she, without knowing they were okay? That must've been rough.)

Why couldn't they be like Grimmchild and just enjoy living in the moment with at least some of their favorite people?

Actually, where was Grimmchild?

"NO! Bad grub!"

A flash of red as Hornet rushed toward Hollow, who was presently ON FIRE thrashing around and kicking vessel shells everywhere, while Grimmchild hovered in the air and watched, entirely too pleased with itself.

"Stop, drop, and roll! Ghost, get some water!"

Ghost grabbed a fairly intact mask off the ground and sped towards the void sea.

"Hollow, what did I just… YOU CAN'T KILL FIRE WITH YOUR NAIL... your mother was a plant! How did she never teach you any fire safety?!"

Scooping the black water into the mask, Ghost turned around and started back to their siblings, and then-

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!" CRASH

The now-flaming Hornet scrambled back to her feet and shot right into the void sea. Ghost barely had time to recover from their daze before Hollow barreled over them and jumped into the sea as well, where they ducked most of their large body into the water and, quite visibly shaken up, tried to catch their breath.

Hornet, though… she was nowhere to be seen. That wasn't good. Surely she'd be fine in normal water, but who knew what void water could do? 

They dove in.

Ah… what… where are their hands? What is this? Why would it have hands? Water doesn't have hands. It doesn't have any kind of form. It's just liquid. Not even that, really; it's void. There's just nothing. A whole expanse of "nothing," made calm and mellow by the light, its opposite, the thing that revealed the existence of "something." That didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Nothing to care about. No need to be anything. No pain to suffer.

No…

That wasn't right. They always had something. Things didn't stop existing just because the void had them. Not forever, at least.

They had light. Light made things exist, gave them shapes, colors. Red fabric. A pair of long white horns. A shiny silver needle.

Ghost emerged from the sea and rolled Hornet onto the shore. Hollow crawled clumsily out of the water and gave her a worried headbutt. Grimmchild joined the group and did the same.

Hornet coughed and hugged her knees, shivering. "I… think it may be time to relocate."


	5. The Strains of Ascending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hole full of death and darkness unsurprisingly continues to be terrible for our heroes' mental states, and maybe more than that, and so they start their journey out.

_How much weight can your silk lift?_ Ghost wondered, leaning over Hornet's shoulder. She flinched away and shuddered, really not ready for more physical contact with void at the moment.

"I… don't actually know," she admitted. "It's not something I've really had to worry about before. I do know you and myself would be no problem, but…" She gazed at Hollow and then at the vast expanse of corpses. Countless vessels who hadn't been able to make it out. Could she risk the same fate befalling the large injured one who was already moving around far more than they should be? Really, a good chunk of Hollow's weight (maybe most of it, at this point) had to be concentrated in their horns, but who knew how much _that_ was?

Hollow hugged both their siblings to their chest and pressed their own face to Hornet's. _I have made the climb before. Didn't even have anyone to live for at that time. None of us did. Now I do. If you want me, at least.  
_

That last part was like a stab in the heart. "You big idiot… I thought you'd know by now, after everything we've been doing for you, that we do want you."

_Ah… yes, that would seem to be the logical conclusion. I just don't understand why, and so didn't want to assume. Perhaps it's a question for later.  
_

"Indeed, so long as you'll allow us to continue helping you." She disengaged from the huddle before they could reply, as waves of their loneliness, fear, and shame began to flood into her. Their fingers clung to her charred cloak until she pried them off and their hand dropped limply to the ground.

They slowly dragged their hand close to their body, curled up facing away from her, and buried their face into the ground. 

Seeing this, Hornet was hit by a pang of her own regret. Maybe she should've let them hold on a little bit longer? It would've been nice if they could just ask for that, but the inability to do so was an unfortunate part of being a vessel, and so couldn't reasonably be expected. She'd have to make it up to them once they were all safely somewhere else. Perhaps also figure out a method of communication for them and Ghost that didn't make her afraid for her own health.

She got to work starting a silk rope. A thick one, carefully reinforced with itself in the way she recalled her mother showing her. Herrah had been a particularly big spider, after all, and from what Hornet had gathered from their time together, no less of a thrillseeker. Not that Hornet could've really appreciated that at the time; Kid Law pretty well dictated that parents were Uncool except when you had to assert dominance over another kid by telling them your mom could beat up theirs.

Kid Law… childhood rebelliousness… ah… no kid got along with their parents all the time, did they?

_"You never let me have anything! I hate you! I wish you'd go away forever!"_

_"One day I will, you know, and you'll regret those words."_

Although Herrah had never appeared fazed much by these outbursts, it was impossible not to wonder if she'd Dreamed and died thinking her daughter actually had any hate for her. 

Even being fully aware of the real reason for Herrah's fate, that persistent little kid part of Hornet's mind had to ask _"What if she did it because she thought I wanted that?"_

These questions were especially harsh with the memory of the king and queen's reactions to the same tantrums; they'd get all sad like they'd been personally harmed and deserved to be, not dramatically or deliberately, but hurting clearly enough to make her feel like the most rotten, ungrateful monster of a child ever. Maybe Herrah had been just as upset but was better at hiding it? As well, the whole set of events with Hollow, whom she remembered treating very coldly right before they went away, was stark proof that people could be deeply hurt and not act like it.

Even now that she could see how she'd hurt Hollow, back then as well as just now, how deep did that pain really run? How much were they not showing? How did they think she felt about them? Did they believe her words about wanting them around?

How did they feel about the name she'd gotten uncomfortably accustomed to calling them even after knowing the truth?

Did they remember that their very recent reunion had literally just been her stabbing them in the face?

_Could she have tried harder to convince them not to go to the Black Egg? If she'd paid more attention to them, would she have seen back then that they really were as much a sentient creature as herself?_

_Would that have changed anything?_

She sighed and gathered up her project.

___

They shouldn't have done that. They still weren't allowed to want to be loved. She'd literally just flat-out told them they were wanted; it was a mistake to hope for more than that. After this display, she'd probably branded them in her mind as selfish, clingy, pathetic, not worth her time.

How would the king feel if he saw his "Pure" Vessel now? Disappointed in it for failing and killing everyone? Would he throw it away, regret wasting time on it, wish a better one had escaped the Abyss instead? 

_Where did I even get those ideas? ...Ah_. The Moth was the one who'd hated him and decided they should hate him too. The Moth was bad. They'd known that basically from the start. The least they could do now was hold onto that.

They didn't want to think of her with a name. Names were for people who could be loved and wanted.

_"You were made to help everyone, but all you're doing is hurting me, the only one who knows your pain!"_

_I'm sorry.  
_

It would be easier if they could just write her off as a liar. But she didn't lie. That was the scariest part; she'd sincerely believed everything she said, which meant she had reasons that made sense to her, which made those reasons always feel more legitimate than their own. Even bad guys _(is there really such a thing?)_ don't deserve to just have their problems dismissed, especially by someone with the privilege of never being allowed to have problems.

It had been so satisfying, in the moment, to rip her fluffy face open after everything she'd done. Was that really okay, though? It couldn't be. Sometimes you had to kill, but that didn't make it okay to like it (even besides the whole "liking anything in the first place" problem)

_"You can't possibly be on his side! He did this to me because he hates me; there's no way he'd do it to his own child if he had any love for anyone but himself. He only liked you because he thought you could do your one job."_

But that went against their own actual experiences with the Pale King, didn't it? They certainly didn't remember him being that kind of person when they lived with him, and it wasn't fair to let his memory be tarnished by their mutual enemy. More likely, he'd avoid them out of shame, take all the blame for himself and feebly attempt to deflect it onto them and feel bad about doing that, quietly beat himself up. That would be worse; at least if he were to genuinely blame them, nobody important would be getting hurt.

How selfish of them to prefer the easier option. Even easier, though, would've been to stay in the Abyss and let Ghost be the chosen vessel. The things Hollow went through… would be so much worse for the little one, if their current highly-emotional nature was anything to go by. It was better, then, that things turned out how they did. _It's okay if I get hurt, if that saves someone I love.  
_

They'd hurt Hornet by leaving all those years ago; they had to because the alternative was the worst thing for everyone. If everything had gone right, the pair would've never seen each other again. Did she wish it had gone like that?

_It's better for others to not care about me, because they'll just get hurt if they do._

_Nothing good should happen to me, because that makes bad things happen to others._

_I need those two, but that doesn't matter; they don't need me. It would be easier on them to just leave without me. Safer for me as well, really; Ghost is a danger I already know I wouldn't survive. But then, why would I want to, if I can't protect...  
_

They heard something on the ground next to their head, and turned just slightly enough to see what it was. Hornet was sitting there, positioned so that they could see what she was working on.

"Normally I can't work when someone's watching. But maybe you've earned the right."

They couldn't imagine having earned anything, but they trusted her.

She did care about them, had never stopped, and wasn't going to stop. Even such a simple display of this sentiment was enough to disperse their anxieties, at least for the moment. Right now, it almost felt like they were as much a part of their own family as either of their siblings and apparently also the evil grub. 

They watched intently as she used her mysterious weaver magic to braid together thin strands of silk into a thicker one (was it magic? It was hard to imagine themself or anyone else having this kind of skill, that was for sure), then wrap it carefully around and flatten against their body. This part felt nice, _(yay, touch!)_ even if a little aggravating on their wounds.

The process took a while, especially with her having to push Ghost off her shoulders every so often and cut Grimmchild loose when it pounced on the string and got tangled. Ghost then had to distract the grub with a cut string of reasonable length, which of course didn't happen until Hornet was groaning in frustration and about three seconds away from yelling at them.

As well, somewhat worryingly, she would sometimes space out as though falling asleep but still sitting in the same position, and then Hollow would have to jolt her back to attention with a sharp headbutt.

_Are you okay?_

She couldn't hear the question without using Ghost as a conduit, of course, but seemed to pick up on it quickly enough. "I'm okay… I think. I do appreciate your concern." This assurance sounded a little shaky, though.

Still, the spider toiled away, and her tall sibling was eventually adorned with a rather handsome silk harness with extra padding around their biggest injuries. (Well, maybe it wasn't the fanciest thing, but it was comfortable and hard work and she'd decided they were worth it)

The rope was looped through the harness's metal rings and firmly knotted, and the needle was threaded and launched. Hornet climbed the rope and waited at the ledge where the needle was, with Ghost and Grimmchild following closely.

Hornet worked hard for them, understood that being alone was bad for them, and appreciated their concern for her health. They were allowed to feel.

Did that make it a good idea?

Another question for later, maybe. Right now, they looked forward to ascending the Abyss and then reuniting with their parents and the Five Great Knights if any of them were still alive… well, of course the king and queen would be; they were both gods, after all. 

Filled with determination, and somewhat energized from their brief void bath, Hollow leapt at the wall and began scaling. One hand, one foot, other foot, other… where was the other hand? No no no this wasn't okay this was dangerous they had no idea how to do this with one arm they were going to fall they were falling they were going to shatter their already-damaged shell and die and their family would be sad and…

The rope held them in place, like the length changed itself to what they needed. Right... of course Hornet could do things like that with this stuff. Her life in the infected world had depended on getting good.

"Hollow, it's okay!"

They stared up at their siblings, heart pounding, hand gripping the rope so tight their claws dug into their palm.

"You can make it! Don't dawdle, but don't try to rush, either."

Ghost, radiating soft light _(no no no why am I moving toward any light),_ leaned forward and waved down to signal their own support.

Pain pulsed in their head the more they focused their vision on the goal. That wasn't important.

 _They're both right. It's okay. I can do this. I have to. They want me with them._ Slowly, shakily, taking deep breaths, pushing through their pounding headache, Hollow moved their hand from the rope and grabbed the rocky wall.

___

The two smaller siblings watched with bated breath as the tall one stared up, hesitating, and then slowly started inching up, their white mask the only easily-visible part. Even though there was visibility while at the bottom of the Abyss, it appeared from a higher point that only darkness existed. If it became necessary to go back down and rescue Hollow, they certainly would, but it would be very much preferable to not have to.

After a short while, Hornet found herself feeling dizzy, and had to back away from the edge and lean against the wall. Ghost was at her side instantly. She waved them away and they backed up, fidgeting their whole body, fighting their entire being to not just latch onto her.

"Don't worry about me," she panted. "Just a little vertigo. Happens all the time. Just go keep an eye on Hollow."

Ghost complied, but paused briefly to shoot her a glare that seemed to say _"I don't believe you."_

That was fair, honestly; heights were her usual business and they knew that well by now. She knew Hallownest so well, too, that over time she'd had to invent increasingly creative methods of traversal just to not die of boredom and loneliness. It was true that she wasn't immune to vertigo, but she'd gotten good at predicting and managing it, and couldn't recall it ever hitting this hard before. Certainly not while still being relatively close to the ground. It also didn't tend to make the air feel so heavy.

Grimmchild wormed into her lap, making sad squeaks and pushing its face against her. She ran a hand through its black fur, unusually warm for a bug, but that wasn't a bad thing. It felt good to touch something that wasn't void. It reminded her that other things existed in the world. 

It reminded her of home. The comfort of fuzzy beasts back in Deepnest was a familiarity she'd long forgotten about. Her own younger self, too, reflected in the child's fiery personality.

A large lanky hand gripped the ledge. Hornet rushed to help Ghost pull their sibling up the rest of the way. The three collapsed in a pile, right on top of Grimmchild as it tried to attack Hornet for getting up. Hollow took a moment to sneak in a quick nuzzle for their sister. She responded by giving them a pat on the head before crawling out of the jumble of limbs and horns.

Hollow reminded her of home, too… the White Palace itself had never really felt like home, but the vessel's silent blank stare had that unnerving effect on people of "What does this thing want, and is it even alive?" that made her feel less alone among all the boring fancy bugs.

Her heart ached so much to have a real home again. Having some kind of family made it seem almost possible, though.

She worked her needle out from where it was lodged, aimed carefully… the others watched expectantly… she threw it at the next ledge that looked big enough.

She stumbled, hit by a wave of dizziness, but regained her footing. The air was still feeling thicker than it probably should.

Hollow (with Grimmchild now gnawing on one of their horns) tried to stand, but their limbs wobbled and gave out, and they fell back down. Not surprising; that climb was a lot for their physical state. They really should at least take a moment-

Ghost, hovering close by, unsheathed Hollow's nail for them, _(oh gods that thing is at least three times their size they can't balance they'll kill us all just trying to hold it)_ and, after accidentally whacking Hollow on the head and narrowly missing Grimmchild and Hornet, eventually managed to stick the nail into the ground. Hollow grabbed the nail and slowly stood up using it as a support. They looked at Hornet and then at where she'd thrown her needle, and then back at her.

"Hollow, _not yet._ If you can't stand up on your own, you can't possibly expect to…" She stumbled again, and had to catch herself with her hands against the wall to stay standing. "Whatever your sense of urgency is about, it can…" She paused to take a few heavy breaths. "...at least wait for you to catch your breath."

Hollow gave a soft snort and side-eyed her. Great; now just because she was sick, they were going to push themselves too hard and get killed. That should've been okay; they were made for that kind of thing, but _no,_ the vessels just _had to go and make her care about them somehow…_

Hornet looked at Ghost. "I don't suppose you'll talk some sense into them…"

Ghost just shrugged, then swooped over to pick her up and deposit her on Hollow's shoulders. While wrapped in the shade's tendrils for that short moment, she felt a chill of panic, like a bucket of cold water dumped over her foggy mind. An unexplained but undeniable instinct to Get Out Of Here.

She wrapped her arms around Hollow's neck, gripped their harness with her foot claws, and they jumped.

___

_NOOOOO SHIT SHIT SHIT THIS WAS A MISTAKE I EXTREMELY REGRET THIS  
_

Hollow squeezed their void-eyes shut as they careened toward the wall at high speed and painfully smacked into it about a second later.

Hornet was knocked loose and had to scrabble to regain her grip. "You see why I told you to take a rest? Rushing such a physically strenuous task is the fastest ticket to further injury… aah… and not only to you, either."

 _I'm sorry, but something's wrong with you, and it feels dangerous to let you stay here any longer…_ She couldn't hear this thought, of course.

Their whole body ached terribly. That didn't matter. Except apparently it did? Hornet didn't want them to get hurt. It would be so nice, for once, to be able to help her in a way that didn't hurt them both, but something pulsed deep in them that they couldn't place, an old void instinct that had existed since long before they hatched, and it instilled an urge to Get Their Sister Out Of There while they still could.

To do that… they had to climb. They were at the wall. They were attached to the magic rope. But where did it lead? It was so dark… easy; just climb up… where was up?

_Dark is good for void creatures. It's my home. I should know what I'm doing! I should be good at this!_

A fireball whizzed past their head. They whipped around in a panic, nearly throwing Hornet off again, forcing her to cling tighter. More fireballs came, accompanied by distressed yowls.

"Ghost, control your child!"

Where even was Ghost? Ah… just hovering nearby, illuminating their immediate area. Grimmchild seemed to calm down and turn its attention to that light. Hollow, however, was feeling an icy dread building up at the sight of it, and turned back around, eyes closed, to press their face against the wall. The dark was safe.

 _Ah… no. Not safe for all of us. Doesn't matter how I feel. Just have to save her. Don't be selfish._ Pushing back their own fears was much easier said than done. Nevertheless, they opened their eyes, looked up along the bright white rope, and worked on climbing. _Doesn't matter if I can't see where it ends. Just follow it.  
_

It was near impossible to tell if they were making any progress, however. They tilted their head back to try to look at Hornet without knocking her off again. She must have excellent vision, if she was able to go all the way up and back down earlier.

"Keep going. You're doing fine."

Her snappish tone and labored breathing suggested she was not doing fine. That meant Hollow had to be fine for both of them. With a deep breath… not that vessels exactly _needed_ to breathe, but it helped sometimes… they lunged upward… and soon lost their balance, distracted by pain and the anxiety of being lost, once again dangling in the air.

Fear gripped their chest and void tears leaked from their eyes at the thought of losing their sister because they weren't good enough.

_Hornet… I'm sorry…_

_Hey. What are you doing?_

Hollow flinched at the piercing bright gaze of their shade sibling, still with the glow around their body keeping Grimmchild calm. _Ah… I-I didn't… I'm fine! Really!_

_I didn't want to scare you. But I want to help. Remember how we made it up the first time?_

Yes. The king's light. The good kind of light. That's right; there _was_ a good kind of light.

Still glowing, Ghost flew up to the ledge and stared down expectantly. Grimmchild teleported back down and started gnawing on Hollow's horn again, more fiercely than before. The creature was growing quite stressed, Hollow could tell, though they had some trouble mustering sympathy for it for some reason.

They looked up at the light, their headache returning and fear growing. _It's not her. It's the good light. Same thing I literally just did. Same thing I did the very first time.  
_

They were never sure what had attracted them to that light the first time. How much of a consciousness had they even had? Perhaps all there was back then was the drive to reach the light.

_"You followed his light, and look where that got you."_

Burning needle-sharp stabs, Grimmchild's teeth in their forehead crack, brought them back to the reality of Right Now. The light. It was closer than they'd thought. Their instinct from long ago drove them toward it.

Hornet climbed onto the ledge next to Ghost, and the two again worked together to pull Hollow up.

She dislodged her needle from the rock and prepared to throw it again.

Then she passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vessels can close their eyes, but since the real eyes are just void peeking out through the mask, you can't tell from the outside.


	6. Snoid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despair, a new friend, and Ghost licking things they shouldn't.

Ghost was at her side instantly, only to be nudged aside by Hollow's hand.

_Do you know what this is? Is it a void thing? What do we do?_

Hollow gave a huff, attempting to downplay the panic leaking from them. _Hey, just because I'm bigger than you doesn't mean I know more. But… I do have a suspicion, yes. She was concerned about the effects of excessive void exposure.  
_

_Right. And you and I, and all of them…_

_It killed us. Don't know why it brought us back. Maybe because we're full god offspring? So much fun she had, though, learning as a little one…_

Ghost picked up a wave of wistfulness, which Hollow quickly stuffed back down. Confusing, but not the most pressing matter at the moment. Hollow, meanwhile, was awkwardly attempting with their one hand to shove Hornet and her needle into their harness on their armless side, both to carry her and to somewhat relieve the pain with extra pressure, while Ghost perched on their shoulder. Grimmchild had disappeared, presumably on account of his current charm-holder being unconscious _(probably for the best; poor thing's too young to deal with all this worry)._

 _ There's a lifeblood cave a little higher up. _ Ghost recalled the image of the magical, bright blue cave where they'd found the Lifeblood Core charm.

_That could be helpful. Can we go there?_

_No… it sealed itself after I found its treasure. Also it may have been a dream.  
_

_Oh._ Hollow considered something for a moment. Ghost fidgeted anxiously. _The treasure was real, though, right? Do you have it with you?_

_Maybe?_ Ghost fumbled around in their void body. Did any of their charms go with them? Were they wasting precious time searching for something that wasn't there?

 _Don't worry about it,_ Hollow thought snappishly. _Just go on and… keep doing what we were doing.  
_

Ghost nodded and flew up to find the next platform. Ah… hmm… ascending the Abyss was a lot easier before when they didn't have to worry about space for someone much bigger. Some of these landings were a narrow fit even for a single baby-sized vessel. Didn't help that the itching was getting a little distracting.

Finding a decently-sized spot, they settled down and peered below at Hollow, hoping desperately that they'd be able to climb up without falling. Their track record so far was the opposite of encouraging.

___

Hollow, panting heavily, chest burning, leaned with their hand against the wall and climbed slowly back to their feet. Ghost's light shone bright at the checkpoint above.

_I don't know if I can really do this, but I definitely don't have the option not to…_

They could be good at ignoring pain. Had to be, when someone needed them; that was why they had no voice to cry suffering. Sure was a lot of suffering to not cry, though…

The king's light beckoning them, as well as the void-blood pumping furiously through their body in the rush to save Hornet, drove them upwards. 

The king's light… that wasn't right. Only the king had his own light. Only the king could be trusted with light. He wasn't here.

The light grew brighter. Harsher. Blinding. Their head felt like it was splitting in half.

_"He only ever cared about himself, the vile, baby-killing coward… probably ran off to die somewhere rather than ever take responsibility for his crimes. His sickeningly compliant coward of a wife, too. But I know where she lives."_

_NO!_

Overcome with a surge of rage and panic, Hollow scrabbled furiously at the rock wall and lunged upward. Screw the light, screw the Abyss, and screw everything both the king and that damned moth had ever put into their head!

Their foot slipped. They grabbed at the wall, but only scraped their palm and fell. They hit the ledge they'd just come from, with a crunch on their shoulders, rolled off the edge, and grabbed on at the last second.

 _Um… Ghost? A little help?_ But they had no voice. The one thing they actually had going for them as a vessel, and now…! _Curse you, Father! Why did you make me this way? How could you be so FUCKING RECKLESS… I'm so sorry, Hornet…_

They didn't have the upper body strength to pull themselves up, especially with only one arm. All they could do was cry silently.

A pair of white eyes peered down from the ledge. Ah… of course Ghost would come back for them! A shaky relief flooded through Hollow as their small sibling made attempts to pull them up.

_This was easier with Hornet's help.  
_

_I know…_ Hollow sighed. _But thank you.  
_

It took some work, especially with Ghost having to be careful around Hornet if the void was indeed making her sick, but soon Hollow was back on the ledge. Unfortunately, they still weren't closer to getting out.

Hollow, terribly sore all over and barely able to move at this point, pulled Ghost close and rested their head on them in despair, void tears falling down into the shade. _I'm sorry. I wish I could save her… wish I could be good for anyone.  
_

_I'm the one who lost control of my light power! And if I hadn't brought her down here in the first place… you probably would've been okay anyway…_ Images flashed in Hollow's head, the curious pillbug, sack-headed warrior cicada, tiny singing miner bug… their own self, overflowing with an impossible amount of infection many times their size, giant nail clear through their gut... _ I already decided I'm done losing people I love! _ Ghost whooshed out from under Hollow's head and slammed the wall violently with a large void tendril.

They paused and tilted their head, examining the wall, pushed at it, and then slammed it a few more times.

The wall busted open, and Hollow automatically curled around Hornet to shield her from debris. They then looked back at the newly-revealed hole.

Ghost turned around and beckoned them, and went inside. Hollow crawled after them… and had quite a tough time fitting their horns through the hole.

The inside, thankfully, was at least cavernous enough for the big lanky vessel to move around, provided they didn't attempt to stand, which didn't feel like it was happening anytime soon anyway.

A pair of white eyes stared at them from a black shadow a short distance away. Was that… no, Ghost was still right here… another shade, then?

Ghost looked at Hollow and then at the other shade, and approached, Hollow tagging close behind.

Soon they could see the figure better. The shape of its body was more defined, and yet simpler, than that of a shade would be. It also seemed to lack horns, and wore a dark gray-brown spiral shell on its head, roughly the size of its whole body. In one hand, it held a staff topped with what appeared to be the empty mask of a baby vessel.

"Curious… I didn't think there were any of you pale creatures still around." The snail ran their hands up and down Ghost's horns, then moved to Hollow and did the same. Hollow had no idea what to make of such close contact from a stranger.

The snail peered at Hornet, but thankfully had the decency to not touch her.

"Hmm. One like the countless embodiments of regret but not quite, one having grown to full size… I had no idea they could get so big… and one that really shouldn't be here.

_Yes! Can you help us save her?_

"Ah, you've developed thought as well. He told them not to, but they all do at some point, I think…"

That wasn't an answer. Hollow glared at the snail, growing irritated, not even bothering to question the fact that he could hear their thoughts.

Ghost poked at the head on the snail's staff, presumably to avoid taking out their own frustration on the snail himself.

"But no, I can't help, not directly. This is a nasty case of void sickness. Quite honestly, it's a wonder she's still alive. You pale creatures are fascinating indeed."

Hollow groaned internally. _Just tell us something we can use already!_

"I was getting to that," the snail said flatly. "You sure are impatient for someone not as mortal as most people…"

Ghost had now moved on to punching the staff's head.

The snail tried to play it like everything was cool. "As she has already survived this long, I think a good source of light will facilitate recovery. You've seen how light can affect void, I'm sure."

Hollow shuddered. _Buddy, you have no idea.  
_

"You can call me Snoid. Snail plus void. Or snailoid; I couldn't tell you how much snail I still am, really. Anyway." He turned to face Ghost. "Your particular condition also may prove helpful for this problem."

Ghost paused and cocked their head, then darted back and forth a little.

Snoid sighed. "No more patient than your sibling, I see. I suppose we can walk and talk at the same time."

___

Snoid led the way through the winding caverns, while Hollow crawled after him and Ghost rode on their head, nestled comfortably between their horns.

"You intrigue me very much, little shade friend. You hold an ancient light, yet also the deepest darkness which connects us…"

Ah yes, the Void Heart. Ghost recalled how the Kingsoul charm had hypnotically filled itself with blackness and permanently merged with them. The shades in the Abyss had seemed to recognize them after that, _although it took some time to figure that out, thank you very much, Grimmchild._

They also remembered how the void helped them against the Radiance. It was like it knew they were part of it, that they needed the rest of it… well, "friendly fire" had been kind of a problem then, but besides that… 

_Please don't do that,_ Hollow interrupted. _You know I can't…_

_Eh? What do you… oh. OH. Sorry._ Ghost slid down Hollow's face and plopped onto the ground, then got up and dashed up next to Snoid. The guy sure seemed to know a lot, but then, straight answers about anything didn't seem to be a priority. Not that their entire journey hadn't gotten them used to that sort of thing already.

"So many of you, I watched compete to be the first out of the nest. Brutal competition it was, both from each other and the place itself. No doubt, also, several of them just started too weak to ever have a chance; that's always the case with particularly large broods. The ones that could fight, though, they wouldn't stay down even when they died; they'd keep trying anyway. Then they'd learn how to hope… how to want… how to despair when each attempt only damaged their shells more. The only ones that really had a chance were the few that escaped without dying once."

_Did you lead any of them out?_ Ghost wondered.  _Like, through secret tunnels like this?_ Ghost couldn't help being curious about this; the Void Heart had brought back the memory of their hatching and first escape attempt, but how they'd actually gotten out, that was still a blank.

"I kept my distance. If they were attacking each other, there was no reason to think they'd treat me any differently. Ah… but they have calmed down recently, after one of the survivors… you, I assume... made a visit. I could feel it myself, too; the void knows itself now."

_Yes! That was me!_

"Fascinating indeed… everyone's single goal back then was to get out of this cursed place, and most never could, and now you just… come and go as you please."

_ Pretty much. Well,when I'm by myself… and have a shell… I don't think I'm getting that shell back.  
_

Snoid nodded. "And you won't leave the other two. I've never known the void to have such concern for others… I suppose it stands to reason that it could, however, if it spent enough time out in the world. Have you three been together long?"

Ghost's thoughts, memories, and feelings swirled together in an incomprehensible mess, all fighting for some kind of order of explanation. How do you explain attachment to one sibling who stabbed you a whole bunch as soon as you met, and another who watched you fall as a baby and then the next time you met, was possessed and forced to also stab you a bunch? Not to mention just generally being constantly starved for safe company in a world of everything trying to kill you. In the most basic possible terms… _ It's complicated.  
_

"Ah yes…" Snoid sighed. "Such is the burden of the outside world. "Really, it's much simpler to stay down here and become-"

WHUMP.

The two whirled around, startled. Hollow had collapsed and was panting heavily. Ghost dashed back to them and latched onto the side of their face.

_I can't make it… you guys should take her and leave me.  
_

_ But you're the only one we know she can touch safely! And anyway, the whole point of all this was so we could all be together.  
_

_I'm very sorry. I appreciate your help, and I've done my best..._ Searing pain flowed into Ghost's body, though Hollow tried to temper it; they didn't want to hurt the small one _. I wouldn't suggest such a risk to her... if I could see any other way._

Ghost took some deep breaths and shook themselves off, then gave Hollow a tight hug and a nuzzle.  _We'll come back for you, bud.  
_

By this time, Snoid had rejoined the group. Ghost looked at him while floating over to Hornet's side.  _Well… guess my sister's riding on your shell the rest of the way.  
_

"Ah yes, my destiny in life, to be a snail, then a void mutant, now a stag." He tugged Hornet out of the harness, lost his balance, and both of them fell unceremoniously onto the ground.

"Ah… what?" 

Apparently this was enough to jolt her awake, though she didn't seem strong enough to get up. Grimmchild teleported in and promptly snuggled around her shoulders with a joyous squeak. Ghost, without thinking, rushed to join the hug, but got whacked by Snoid's staff.

And then the "snail" touched the head of the staff to Hornet's forehead.

"My old people were into soul magic. I may have strayed from them, but like the void absorbs things, I kept some tricks I picked up." He looked at Hornet. "You. Focus."

Hornet looked confused for a moment, then weakly, shakily, put her hands around the staff's head and pressed it tighter to hers.

Snoid seemed to focus as well, and a white glow appeared around the head. Thin, almost-invisible strands rose from Hornet and grabbed onto that light, and soul pulsed down the strands and into her.

The glow faded. Ghost watched anxiously. Hornet sat up. Ghost resisted the urge this time to throw their arms around her, and instead perched their hands on Snoid's shoulder.

_You store soul in that thing? Where do you get it? Can you heal Hollow too?_

"Soul is the life force that drives living beings… it also is given freely by the water in some places. Or perhaps it is the water? There have been beliefs that all bugs originally came from that water, but I don't think it was even there before…"

Ghost exuded exasperation.

"Anyway, I have a place where I go to refill this thing. I suppose we could make our way that way."

Sigh…  _You mean we weren't already going there?_

Snoid crouched down so Hornet could climb onto his shell. She did, and then he carefully stood back up and started walking.

Hornet looked at the staff's vessel head. "Thank you, fallen sibling. I hope you've found peace." Grimmchild then proceeded to reach down and chew on it.

Ghost held little regard for the shells littering the Abyss; after all, these were just things discarded by strangers. They'd felt for the shades, however, from the moment they realized those were innocent children who were still lost and scared. Not even just children, it turned out, but ones murdered and trashed by their own father!

Ah… but if a dead vessel's shell could still be made to store soul, then… !

Ghost yoinked the staff and dashed back toward Hollow, and jabbed them with it to make particles of soul fly out. Even without knowing the specific technique Snoid had used on Hornet (or how much of it was Hornet's own capability), vessels had the natural ability to absorb soul on their own, so…

Nothing happened. The soul dissipated, and Hollow didn't move or breathe. A pang of worry gripped Ghost, and they shook their sibling's shoulder, but to no avail.

"Let them sleep!" Snoid yelled. "Maybe then they won't be so irritable to me later… you unite the void and still somehow lack empathy for it… honestly, are all pale children so insufferable when you're not constantly dying?"

Ah… right. Of course they were asleep. Ghost felt foolish for automatically assuming the worst. They gave Hollow a quick awkward pat and then rejoined the group, where Hornet had some choice words in progress.

"...If you had any idea of the hells we've been through because of who our father was... the responsibilities put upon us that I'd never wish on anyone… agh…"

"I recommend saving at least some of that energy I just gave you; the rest of your party has shown a vested interest in your survival. For some reason."

Ghost couldn't pinpoint when the tunnel changed, but the dull, black-brown rock of the Abyss became the dark blue dirt of Deepnest with the weird glowing plants and fungi that grew in it. This gave them a sense of relief; not only were they familiar with the hot spring they were headed for, but also Deepnest was a place where things lived. It wasn't just full of dead people. The place was nature at its finest, dangerous and terrifying, but persistent and mysterious and awe-inspiring, not restrained by anyone's ideas of what beauty should look like. It would likely recover well and grow back even stronger, too, as this was already very much an "adapt or die" sort of environment.

A warm, white light pooled on the ground ahead. Ghost dashed ahead and jumped into the hot spring, Grimmchild diving in next to them, and the two friends playfully chased and splashed each other. Snoid shortly joined them, and Hornet slid herself off his shell and into the water.

Ghost gave Grimmchild a noogie, and the latter retaliated with a bite, and instantly recoiled and gagged. Apparently void didn't taste too good.

Suddenly curious about this, Ghost stuck out a void-tongue and licked their own hand. They didn't notice any difference. They probably shouldn't have expected to.

They licked Grimmchild's forehead. Grimmchild chirped happily and licked them back, which didn't really turn out better than the bite.

They looked at Snoid's vessel staff, planted upright in the water.

"Don't you even think about it."

Ghost inched closer to the staff, staring into its owner's eyes the whole time, and licked it.

Snoid groaned in frustration. "No respect for the dead, on top of everything else…"

"Oh please; it's not as though you're any better, appropriating the corpse of one of our family members for use as a tool in the first place," Hornet grumbled.

As fun as all this was, Ghost couldn't shake the worry gnawing at their mind. Would Hollow really feel better after their nap? Would they wake up and look for everyone and end up lost? _Would they disappear like Quirrel?_

_I did promise to come back for them; what are they gonna think if they wake up and nobody's there?_

They grabbed the staff and climbed out of the water.

"Stop!"

Ghost turned around.

"Where do you think you're going with that?" Snoid called.

"I assume they're off to check on our big sibling." Hornet sighed and looked at Ghost. "Take your new friend with you, then; I still remember your little dream faux pax, and I do not want Hollow subjected to similar. Also I'm going to throttle this bozo if he stays with me."

"Well, it's not like I'd just let them run off with my property anyway…" Snoid climbed out of the water and joined Ghost, and they set off. "Snail, void mutant, stag, I suppose babysitter is only the next logical step."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As funny as the memes are, I don't really buy that the Pale King threw kids back into the Abyss for not being good enough. Unless maybe he did it from the view of "they're just going to get infected otherwise, and that's worse." 
> 
> Also what the hell Snoid you weren't supposed to be this kind of character you were SUPPOSED TO BE A NIHILIST HIPPIE not a mouthy, brazenly un-empathetic asshole


	7. Chicken Soup Full of Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hollow rejoins the party, talks with Ghost about friendship, and gets a small break from angst. Hornet is softer than she ever lets on to anyone. Snoid may be softer than he lets on to himself.

The palace was just as beautiful as they remembered. The white walls, ornate door frames, the tapestries and needlepoint-decorated chair cushions, soft carpet under their feet… Hornet's webs from those climbing games she always got in trouble for... royal retainers milling about… the welcoming pale light everywhere.

_I'm home._

These two words brought tears to Hollow's eyes.

_Ah! Is that okay here?_

The king and queen- Hollow's parents- stood before them, glowing too bright for their faces to be seen, but easily recognizable.

"My dear Vessel…" The Pale King took their hand in both of his bright yellow ones. "I never thought you'd return to us. We did what we had to, but I missed you so."

The White Lady gently ran a branch along their face. "Precious child, your task was doomed to be impossible. You never deserved such a burden."

_Is it… safe to love you now?_

Instead of answering with words, the Pale King jumped up into his tall child's arms and hugged their neck, and the White Lady wrapped her yellow-orange branches around both of them.

Hollow blinked.

Their parents glowed white. Everything was normal. 

They were in the temple.

_It can't be normal. I shouldn't love you. Not after what you did...  
_

"We did what we had to. You know that."

Their void-blood boiled. Orange tears stung their eyes.

_I should kill you! I wish I had before you had a chance to leave me here!_

The king bowed his head. "Then do it. I don't want to live if you don't want me to."

Hollow reached for their nail. The tears pushed out more aggressively and blurred their vision and turned everything violently orange. _I'll do it, then! I have to...  
_

The orange started to clear away, and their parents' glows faded until they were black.

_Ah…_

Not immediately realizing who they were looking at now, they shook their head (which wasn't easy with those horns) and blinked a couple times.

They were lying down in a rocky tunnel, still weak and hurt, still missing an arm. Two familiar beings stood before them.

Just those two… where was Hornet?

_I don't want to know. Not yet. Not if she's…_

"This one has been impatient to get you back with us," Snoid explained. "I told them to let you sleep, but well, I assume you know how they are…"

Hollow still felt the anger, fear, and sadness lingering from the dream, the regret of having such rage toward their parents whom they loved and missed, the uneasiness of having dreamed at all, and especially seeing That Color _.._ . _It's fine. I don't think I'm sleeping again for a while anyway._

Ghost jabbed the staff into Hollow's side, making soul particles fly out, until no more did, and the soul was sucked into Hollow's body.

_Come on._ Ghost had now dropped the staff and was tugging on Hollow's hand. _ Let's go to the hot spring. Hornet's there.  
_

So she was safe! And awake, if the image in their mind was literal. She'd be happy to see them safe, too! They crawled awkwardly but eagerly after the other two… and collapsed again.

Ah… right. Soul couldn't heal them just by being there. They had to make it do that.

They focused. Pain faded away and was replaced by new strength. Not much, given their size and the severity of their injuries, but any amount was a relief they'd long since forgotten was even possible.

Ghost was on them instantly with a hug that gave off warm, colorful joy, as of flowers blooming in their mother's garden, or a nice soul-water hot spring with friends, or even both at the same time. Safety. Love. Good things in life.

Hollow returned the affection with a nuzzle. Maybe things could be okay.

___

Snoid picked up his staff from where Ghost had dropped it, and sat some distance away. What was the deal with these pale children, anyway? Doing stuff to help them, that was one thing; it wasn't like he ever had anything better to do, but those three acted like he _had_ to help them just because he was there. Were they like that with everyone?

He looked at the staff's lifeless face, patted it with his free hand, and sighed. "Much as I find myself wishing you could talk to me, perhaps it's for the best that you can't." Not that muteness had been enough to save the poor creature anyway.

He'd spent so long living as part of the void that memories of his past life now felt like dreams, wisps of stories that may or may not have ever been real. The only ways to be sure it was real were the snail shell, the knowledge of specific soul techniques that the pale ones didn't seem to have, and the fact that he didn't quite seem to fit in with the void either.

That was why the pale ones all aimed to leave, wasn't it? They were infused with something other than void. That meant they needed something else. Sure, the shades seemed mostly content now, but not from anything of their own doing. They'd needed this other one, the strangely fearless… no, that wasn't right; that one had fear. It cared deeply for the siblings that stayed with it. Why? What was the point in caring about anyone?

The siblings stared at him. The smaller one waved at him to come over and join their hug. 

He shook his head and stayed where he was. Void shouldn't have emotions; nothing good ever happened when it did. He himself was doing just fine without them.

___

Hornet sat stretched out against the border of the hot spring. Her cloak lay nearby on the ground, with Grimmchild having gotten stuck and now trying to worm its way out.

It was nice, for once, to be able to relax without worrying that her siblings were tearing each other's throats out as soon as they were alone together. Then again, it would be just her luck if that snail were to come back and tell her they were doing exactly that and he didn't feel like stopping them…

They were fine, surely. Both vessels had already displayed the maturity required to choose self-sacrifice for the good of their people; that had to mean they were capable of being nice to each other, even if they hadn't been great at showing it so far. And the snail's help had been invaluable, even with his infuriatingly dismissive attitude about the siblings' hardships.

Worrying wasn't doing any good. There were times it could lead to action that needed to be taken, but too much of it led to unwarranted distrust, which had a way of pushing people away… this had been fine when she was already losing everyone she was meant to protect and unable to do anything about it. Even if she saved someone from death by infected zombie,that just meant they lived long enough to become one themselves… if you could decide they were bad people for not protecting themselves or each other, that would make the loss hurt less. Preemptively killing them in your mind to shield yourself… did that ever really work?

She'd been ready to actually kill Ghost before. She had killed that other vessel, and it stayed dead. If they couldn't stand up to her, then they'd never have stood a chance against the Radiance anyway. The best they could hope for was to transfer the Hollow Knight's suffering onto themselves and only temporarily relieve that of everyone else. No point wasting your heart on what was made to be a disposable tool. Even if you already knew they were more than that.

She had always killed to survive anyway; all spiders did. Even each other, if there was nothing else. Even their own mates. But that was simply the circle of life.

Ah, but although she was used to being alone by now, it was turning out that she no longer had to be. She hadn't always been alone, and was never really happy when she was. Not that she'd admit such a vulnerability to anyone; showing weakness makes people distrust you as a leader, and then they go get themselves killed. And then you're alone again.

The sounds of footsteps came from the tunnel leading to the hot spring. Hollow's white mask could be seen first, above the other two but not at full height, as they were hunched over and using their nail as walking support. Hornet waved them over, then noticed Grimmchild watching the motion from a pouncing position in the water, and quickly brought her hand back down.

Ghost climbed up Hollow's nail and tugged their hand, then dashed over and jumped into the water, where Grimmchild zoomed to greet them. The snail slid in close behind.

Hollow started slowly, then broke into a run, tripped over their own nail, and tumbled face-first into the pool, creating a huge splash that rocked everyone else around and threw Hornet clear out of the water. 

Once the waves settled down and everyone was able to regain their balance, Hollow scrunched up and sank as low into the water as they could, their face just barely peeking out in embarrassment.

Hornet sighed, rubbed her temples, and climbed back in. At least everyone was here.

___

_So. That Quirrel guy. He was your friend?_ Hollow's query carried a hopeful tone. By this point, they'd relaxed a bit and stretched out, curling around a little and propping up on their elbow.

Ghost looked down at the water, drawing small circles in it with a tendril. Sorrowful… yet also curious?  _Yeah. My best friend. Even if it took me a while to figure out he was the same bug every time we met up. He's how I learned what a friend is. It's someone you feel warm and safe with in a scary world, and you get sad when they leave you._

Then an image of a bug that looked like a vessel but much more cranky and loud-mouthed and probably drunk. _ And sometimes it's someone you hate because they're mean to you for no reason and also they steal your girlfriend and then she dreams about him making babies while beating you up, but you're just glad he talks to you instead of murdering you in real life. _

_Er… what?_

_But anyway. Quirrel. Did you know him too?_

_Not that well. I only recognized him from the mask he carried in your memories. But…_ Hollow wasn't sure about this next part; it would be horribly rude to make this about them when the subject was someone else important to Ghost. Still, they couldn't not wonder if maybe they hadn't really been sealed that long if they'd both known the same presumably-fully-mortal bug?

_...He was older than he should've been.  
_

_Oh. Sorry._ Actually, how old should he have been? Ghost seemed to have more familiarity with the concept, enough that Hollow knew better than to press about it.

_But so are a lot of people, I guess? So I don't really get what that has to do with anything._ Ghost leaned back against their large sibling and stared up at the ceiling.  _He and the stag were the only ones who said anything about age.  
_

_There are still stags around?_

_One._ A memory of an empty eggshell among a nest of stag corpses.  _I don't think the baby is in Hallownest anymore, even if it's alive. But the Old Stag is my other best friend. He always likes taking me places, and he still runs fast, and he knows a lot about how Hallownest used to be. I think you'd like him.  
_

So there was still no telling how long Hollow had been gone. They weren't sure they really wanted to know anyway, how many people must've died in that time; the dead stags alone made them queasy. For now, at least, they'd rather just be glad Ghost still had at least some living friends out there (especially considering what that _thing_ in them could possibly do if left alone again).

_Are you still afraid of me?_

_I… sincerely would rather not be. I know it's not your fault, and... you really are a good friend.  
_

There was a sort of tension between the two, dampened by the warm peacefulness of the hot spring, but still there. Hollow pushed it back under their mental rug and gave Ghost a half-hearted nuzzle. Ghost wasn't _her._ They were their own person. Even though they suffered for it, they continued to find good in the world and in the people they met. They still had those sparks of trust and hope and wonder that the Moth had lost long ago. Yet… she'd once had those as well; otherwise she wouldn't have been hurting so much for the lack of them.

_Ghost… friend… please never stop being you.  
_

Ghost looked at them for a moment, then waved Grimmchild over and started wading away while drawing trails in the water for the grub to chase.

Hollow rested their head in the water, letting the healing warmth flow into the deep crack on their forehead. They'd likely have quite a lot of permanent scarring (especially with a whole arm being gone), but being here, they were finding that it didn't have to hurt all the time.

Then they happened to look to the side to see Snoid standing uncomfortably close. _You were eavesdropping, weren't you.  
_

"Much more appealing than being berated by your sister again; I hope you can understand that. Also you're taking up a lot of space in here anyway."

_Ah…_ Hollow wasn't new to people disliking Hornet, and could understand why they would, but also wasn't exactly comfortable being approached about it. _She's always been very… assertive and protective. Especially about me.  
_

"Eh, if you want to call it that…"

This didn't feel good.

_"Snooping through your thoughts is much more appealing than just being the good little inmate your so-called father would prefer. I think you can understand that."_

The void inside them pumped frantically. They needed out.

_I… yes, I will call it that. My family is good people. We do the best we can. Also... how are you reading my mind, anyway?_

"I mean, we're both void, aren't we? Ask your dark-hearted sibling-friend."

Still not properly answering questions, but at least this time the question didn't have a medical emergency attached to it.

Speaking of which… _Thank you, by the way. For helping us save her.  
_

Snoid shrugged. "...It's not like I had anything better to do."

_Did you want something better?_

"I gave up long ago on wanting anything. The others, they all learned to want, only to never receive anything but more death and suffering. You, however… you and your little party get what you want, somehow."

_Only now. Before they saved me, I couldn't… I wasn't allowed to… I'm sorry; I shouldn't talk about myself. There's a reason I don't have a voice. And… I'm sorry for being annoyed at you earlier.  
_

"Hmph. Seems to me you've got plenty of voice." He turned and started walking away, only for Grimmchild to be thrown into the side of his head and then tackled by Ghost. The latter then picked up Grimmchild, ducked down, and skittered away as though that would make them less conspicuous.

Hornet groaned from across the pool. "You two have this entire cavernous room in which to roughhouse, and yet you pick only the small amount of space where some of us are incapacitated and attempting to rest…"

Snoid got up, climbed out, and made his way toward the bench, muttering something about "capable of agreeing with me and still only doing it to look out for you."

Was that a bad thing? Hollow shrugged and crawled over (quite clumsily on account of trying to put weight on their arm that was in fact still gone) to where Hornet was, and rested their head against her side, their face halfway under the water. After an initial moment of panic at seeing them like this (that's right; bugs didn't usually just lie still with their faces underwater if they were alive), she draped her arm around their horn and scratched their forehead, careful to keep her fingers away from the crack in case that would hurt them.

They remembered the blinding sting of her needle straight into their face. Probably better than… well, everything else at the time, and it wasn't like they'd ever expected the pain to stop anyway, but that was still not something they ever wanted to feel again. They couldn't really be sure whether the crack was there before, either.

That didn't matter. They weren't being hurt now, by anyone _(So weird to not have someone hurting me)_ . They were safe and loved. Did they deserve to be? Somehow that didn't seem to matter either. This was what happiness felt like. It was here, and it was for them, and they were taking it.

_"You failed and no one will ever like you again."_

_Oh, shut up,_ they thought as Hornet's other hand reached around to scratch their chin, eliciting a happy purr from within their void, and they snuggled more tightly against her. The fluffy ruff coating her thorax was soft against their face; they'd forgotten she had that, since she normally wore a cloak and always looked so pointy. Fitting for the kind of person she was, though, a gentle, caring heart guarded by harsh, deadly elegance... much like them in their prime, in fact. That she allowed them this close was proof of a special kind of bond.

A mischievous thought entered their head. They poked a void-tongue out from an eye hole, aimed it carefully…

...and then Ghost rushed up and licked Hornet's face.

_What the… You sniped my prank!_

"Excuse you, Ghost; we were having a moment!" She looked at the void-tongue still protruding from Hollow's eye. "And please put that back; it's... highly disturbing."

Hollow slurped the tongue back into their eye like a noodle and blinked innocently, not that that was visible from the outside anyway. To be honest, even having the prank sniped from them at the last second, there was a certain giddy rush that came from finally being free to personally experience the concept of fun.

_Am I really, though?_ The unease lingered in the back of their mind. They trusted Hornet, and desperately wanted to trust Ghost, but… would they ever be able to trust that their longtime abuser was really gone? How could she be when she still wouldn't get out of their head?

Feeling a chill inside them at such a thought, as well as that of presuming their own suffering counted as abuse (they were specifically made for it, so it couldn't be as bad as what everyone else got, all the husks they'd had to personally put down, all the friends who could never know the vessel considered them as such before feeling the cut of its nail), they backed up to an empty spot and crouched as low as they could into the water. They needed to focus on healing. If there was danger, they'd need to be in some condition to at least try to protect their loved ones. Trying hadn't been enough before, but it was all they could do. 

It was the least they could do; they were still alive and able to heal, which was better than what most infection victims got.

They felt a weight on their bad shoulder. It stung, but that was just par for the course.

_Hey… are you okay?_

_...Yes. Sorry for worrying you. But I need some space right now. Sorry.  
_

_Okay._ And then the weight lifted.

Hollow instantly regretted asking to be left alone. They'd grown up associating the idea of their own isolation with everyone's safety, and that association still lingered, but at the same time, those two things felt mutually exclusive now. If they were alone with their thoughts, then _she_ was with them, and then no one was safe.

They lumbered back towards Hornet, visibly disturbing her with harsh splashes from their clumsy three-limbed movements, apologizing silently but profusely. 

She sighed and reached over to rub their head again. "Had anyone told me before that my destiny would be as emotional support for someone I was never supposed to see again, the business end of my needle would've disagreed fervently."

_This is for you too, you know._ In an attempt to illustrate this point, Hollow pressed their head against her hand. 

Hornet obliged and administered the scratches, prompting more purrs from the affectionate vessel. "You're lucky I already harbor fondness for you."

Hollow still had yet to figure out why they were apparently so easy to like. Maybe it was luck.

It still didn't feel right, or really possible, to be loved and not hurt. It felt chaotic. But it also felt nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I kinda wanted Hollow's dream to be just Happy and then waking up would be sad, but... honestly they've got so much shit stuck in their head that they have no idea how to deal with and haven't even had time to figure it out, happy dreams aren't gonna come easy.
> 
> \- No, Ghost was never actually dating Bretta. They're aromantic as heck and just sorta run with their own idea of what a girlfriend is as far as they've been able to make sense of it, like basically everything else they do.
> 
> \- Hollow PLEASE your adorableness is gonna kill me.


	8. Schrodinger's Cat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghost has Some Opinions about the hells they've been through. Survivors show up with a distressing revelation about themselves.

Snoid pushed Ghost away from his face. "Out of all the things you could've learned out in the wild, personal space really wasn't one of them?"

Ghost chuckled silently at the thought of how Snoid was all over them and Hollow as soon as they'd met.  


"Hey, I have the excuse of living alone."

Ghost poked at the staff's vessel head, while Grimmchild gnawed a horn.  _ Did you know this one when it was alive? _

"Ugh… there were so many, I don't know how you can expect me to know… I can't be sure this was the same one, but… how is my life story any of your business anyway? Just because it involves your supremely messed-up family?"

_ I don't know much about my family besides what we were made for and how that ended up. _ Which of course was enough to not disagree about the "supremely messed-up" part, other than the wording didn't feel appropriately strong. Maybe that was all they needed to know. Was that possible, though? No matter their original purpose, their primary driving force was, and always had been, to explore and learn new things.  


They wondered if Hollow had had the same explorer's instinct back in their day, and made a note to ask them later. If they'd still have it once they recovered enough. It felt so deep and natural for Ghost that they suspected it was ingrained in all vessels.  


Their encounter with the Nosk, the beast that stole important faces from your memory, poked its way into their head. It had taken their own face… grabbed their overwhelming curiosity and picked through questions like  _ "What am I? Is there anyone like me who's still alive? What other weird stuff lives in Deepnest?" _ Their curiosity about the world, as well as their will to keep exploring it no matter how many times it killed them, meant they could be counted on to walk into an obvious trap just to see what would happen. It wouldn't be exactly accurate, though, to say loneliness and longing for their own kind didn't play a significant role as well.  


"You are a persistent thing…" Snoid pulled his staff close and cradled it.  


Grimmchild growled and flapped over to where Hornet and Hollow were now sitting together.  


_ Hollow knows they're allowed to tell me if they want to hang out with her and not me, right? _ ...No, they actually probably didn't. It hurt that Hollow was afraid to trust them, even if they had a somewhat understandable reason (only somewhat, because Ghost simultaneously felt like they had the Light under control and was afraid to think they actually didn't). They knew, though, that the larger one had been sincere about calling them a good friend.  


_ What if they're right, though? What if nobody's safe around me? I can't be the Vessel, especially not now... I'd have to leave Hallownest entirely… I can't… I don't want to lose everyone! _

They'd already found out the hard way, too, that cuddling with Hornet was dangerous for her while they lacked a shell for their void. This wouldn't bother them nearly so much if she was still cold toward them like before when they didn't want to get too close to her anyway, but no, she had to go and start treating them like a friend, and given that that mainly entailed "doing literally anything other than try to kill them"...

"I have no idea what you're on about, but I need you off of me!"

Ghost paused their spiral long enough to notice they were sitting on the bench next to Snoid with their arms wrapped around him. They took a second to compose themself and release him and act like nothing was happening.  


"I get it. You're a shade, you get consumed by fear and regret and all that, that's what they do. What I don't get is why you're still here like that."

_ What do you mean? _

"I mean why aren't you resting in peace like you apparently got the rest of them to?"

_ Ah… _ That was a good question.  _ I guess I'm not ready to? I don't really feel that dead. _ They thought about all their friends in Dirtmouth, and the ones elsewhere, Salubra, the Old Stag, the Seer, their mother… Myla… Quirrel, wherever he was…  _ They'd be sad if I was gone. I know how it feels. I can't do that to them. And I need to know they're all safe.  
_

"So you live for others, despite clearly having a well-established mind and will of your own."

_ Kind of? But I want to be with them, too. They make me feel safe. And I want to see what's next.  
_

They looked back over at Hornet, Hollow, and Grimmchild in the pool, engaged in some kind of light splash tag sort of game.  _ I want  _ us  _ to see what's next.  
_

Hollow in particular had never gotten to have much of a life. They deserved a chance at it. They deserved to know the beauty of the world they'd been made to suffer for, and experience it with people who cared for them as an equal and not a tool. They deserved to feel loved and safe.  


Snoid tapped Ghost on the shoulder, and the latter turned back around. "What does being dead feel like, anyway?"

_ Well, it's… hmm… _ They couldn't quite recall, come to think of it, despite being so familiar with it happening. Like waking up from a dream… ah, maybe it felt sort of like being in a dream? Except in dreams, they still felt solid and sure of their own existence. Everyone who knew anything about shades knew they were the forms of the dead's regrets. That couldn't possibly feel the same as having a real body. 

They did recall a vague but strong sense of fear and confusion. That was what their siblings in the Abyss had been feeling all the time… yet also, a resolve from the shell to rejoin with the shade? How much of their consciousness was in each part? Which one was Really Them? It was impossible to visualize, impossible to remember the sensation of being split into two presumably-sentient parts simultaneously. Was it even possible while it was happening? They couldn't be sure of that either.  


This current form, though, felt like… a weird mix of shade and shell, seemed like the best way to describe it. Their emotions, they realized now, had never had this intensity as a whole vessel, at least not in a way that lingered, but their consciousness seemed to be all in one place. And examining closely, their shade body seemed kind of… more smooth and defined than before.  


_ Ghost! If you can hear me… both of you get over here! _

While Ghost was paralyzed with confusion and panic at the urgent tone and the fact that it was reaching them all the way over here, Snoid just groaned. "What do you want now?"

_ We're not alone.  
_

In an instant, Ghost was crouched between Hollow's horns… and immediately thrown off into the water as their giant sibling splashed awkwardly but aggressively toward where they'd dropped their nail.  


_ Sorry! _

Ghost re-oriented and stood back up. Hornet was running alongside the pool to catch up with Hollow, also throwing her cloak back on while grasping her needle. Snoid was following, slowly but nervously, as though putting on a front of boredom.  


Joining the party and looking toward the tunnel everyone was focused on, Ghost could see a small group emerging, a stalking devout and various other Deepnest spiders. Some of the arachnids were engaged in some kind of argument. More importantly, all of their eyes had a weirdly complete lack of orange glow. Obviously a good thing, but weird after being used to nearly everyone having it.  


"I told you the princess was alive!"

"And I'm telling you you're clearly being taken in by a Nosk."

"Why would a Nosk be just hanging out with the Hollow Knight and not fighting it?"

"Um, obviously it's also a Nosk?"

"...Are you serious right now?"

"Guys, I think you're missing the obvious… the princess is real and the Hollow Knight is a Nosk!"

"Who cares which one is the Nosk? I want to see them fight!"

Hornet held onto her needle and stared warily at the squabbling spiders, but made no move, unsure of how to react. It must be nice for her to see survivors that seemed to know her, but from Ghost's relatively short amount of time with her so far (and possibly also their new natural mind-reading power), they could guess pretty well that she wasn't a fan of crowds, especially ones that acted like a bunch of Colosseum fools.  


Finally she sighed and spoke. "While I'm glad to see more survivors, I'm afraid I must disappoint you with the news that, no, I am not going to fight the Hollow Knight."

"See? It is really her. Now pay up that three million geo!"

"Aw c'mon, I don't have that much! Nobody has that much, except the royals! I was gonna make you loot it off her corpse for me."

The three siblings silently shared a look that could only be described as  _ "WHAT….." _

"Well… we could kill her," the stalking devout offered. "She is the reason our queen is dead."

"That's enough out of you!" Hornet was now decisively in attack mode, needle pointed at the group. Hollow gripped their nail as well, in as much of a threat pose as they were currently capable of, with their single arm and general physical weakness and still being hunched down halfway in the water. "While you were helpless, my siblings and I gave meaning to my mother's sacrifice and cured you of the infection, and you should thank us for your lives if you wish to keep them!"

"Oh sure, of course you'd have us believe there was an infection… I still think the Pale King made it up," a weaver grumbled, having nestled itself safely in the devout's fluff.  


Ghost was just about ready to throw an Abyss Shriek. They knew for a fact almost  _ everyone _ had been infected. They'd seen how much pain the worst cases were in! Those poor bloated gruzzers just dripping the stuff everywhere and then exploding, the tortured vengeflies driven to madness and also exploding… poor Hollow, so loyal, so unlucky, too nice for their own good, now missing an entire limb, never deserved any of that… and now people were just denying any of that ever happened? Not to mention having worked so hard to save everyone and receiving not just ungratefulness but outright hostility for it…

Hornet shot a brief threatening glance at Snoid, lest he have more trash to say about her and the vessels. To his credit, he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut on this.  


The devout carefully pushed its way to the front of the group. "You realize that killing us, especially here at the healing place, would only prove your treachery. Not that being friendly with the Pale King's experiments is exactly better."

Ghost had had enough. Void tendrils spread along the ground from their shade-like body. The spiders scattered, but the angry snares chased them down and grabbed them before they could escape entirely.  


_ Do you think we wanted this? _ Ghost growled directly into their minds.  _ We were only eggs. He threw us to the void. It killed us and brought us back different. All to raise one as an immortal sacrifice. To save people like you. The rest of us were abandoned, left to die and come back and die again and wonder forever what they did to deserve their curse. Hidden away like trash, and yes, even called that, so he could run from his shame. None of us ever had a choice. _ They squeezed the squirming, screaming spiders, furiously pumping dark memories into their heads in all the excruciating detail. 

_ Because of him, it is only us.  
_

Void started to creep toward the spiders' eyes and mouths, and they screamed and thrashed as hard as they could against their imminent agonizing demise…

And then a sudden stabbing pain. Ghost looked down to see a very long nail right through their middle. The tendrils withered, dropping the traumatized spiders onto the ground, and then Ghost collapsed with them.  


Hollow withdrew the nail and tenderly patted their injured sibling.  _ I'm sorry I had to do that,  _ they whispered in a mind-voice full of sorrow _. But you weren't hurting only them.  
_

Through Hollow's mind, Ghost could see the vague shapes and colors that represented Hornet huddled at the far end of the pool, and… a brown boulder? No, snail shell… Snoid on the ground next to her. The scene dispersed quickly, but was drenched in deep anger and sadness and shame from the large vessel.  


Ghost curled up, shivering in pain, and weakly attempted to gather the leaking void back into their wound with one hand while clinging to Hollow's fingers with the other.  _ Don't let me go… _

_ I won't. I promise. We stay together now. _ Hollow cupped their hand around Ghost and scooped them carefully into the pool, and hunkered down to curl around them.  


Still hurting but starting to feel fuzzy from the soul-water's numbing effect, Ghost snuggled into the curve of Hollow's neck.  _ Thank you… I'm sorry too.  
_

It seemed kind of wrong to listen to feelings they knew Hollow was trying to hide from them, but… it wasn't exactly Ghost's fault they'd lost the ability to be selective about reading others' thoughts. 

Their outburst had certainly scared the others. Hollow, though… out of everyone, they were probably the least bothered by the circumstances of the vessels' birth, but a new fear had been instilled… or rather, an existing one forced to the forefront by what they'd just done… the worst part was, it was impossible to guarantee it wouldn't come true.  


It wasn't just the fear of Ghost becoming another Radiance. It was that Hollow might one day have to kill them to prevent that. Or worse, panic and make the call prematurely.  


Something else was there too, but much more heavily guarded, even actively repelling.  


_ I'm sorry, _ they repeated, snuggling more tightly against their large sibling.  _ I don't ever want to do that to you, or anyone.  
_

_ Yes, please don't… especially not literally right after someone declares a safe zone. But also just don't.  _ Resting their head on their arm, Hollow moved their bad shoulder as if trying to wrap their nonexistent arm around Ghost, and gave it an annoyed side-eye and huff when it didn't do what they wanted.  _ Anyway, please also try to refrain from potentially starting civil wars.  
_

_ Hey, it's not like you weren't ready to back up Hornet. Also… _ They kneaded and poked, intently but gently, at Hollow's cloak where it covered their shoulder.  _ I didn't really get a good look before. Is there any arm left there? _

_ I'll be honest; I've been afraid to check. But it feels like it's still there. Very irritating. Doesn't hurt in the water, though.  
_

Ghost moved their kneading slowly, directly over where the arm should've been taking up space.  _ Does this feel weird, then? _

They felt a warmth from Hollow's mind.  _ Yes. Very weird. But not bad.  
_

There was still an uncomfortable tension between the two, stronger now that attacks had happened (even if getting stabbed by siblings was pretty much routine for Ghost by this point). Maybe it would go away if they tried hard enough to cover it up. Neither exactly wanted to bring it back up when they could just… enjoy as much time together as possible.  


They heard footsteps along the shore. Hornet sat down close to them and stretched her feet out into the water.  


_ Are you okay? _

No answer, or any acknowledgement at all.  


Ghost tilted their head toward Hollow.  _ You called to me from halfway across the room; why can't I…? _

_ It's a void-specific thing, I think. I didn't even know I could do it like that until then.  
_

_ I guess that makes sense… mine's different, though.  
_

Hollow shrugged their armless shoulder, then shifted closer to Hornet and rested their head on her knee, and looked up at her.  


She sighed and looked back at where the spiders had been. They were gone now, apparently recovered enough to have already scrammed. Well, the smaller ones, anyway; the stalking devout was probably lurking somewhere outside.  


"I used to have friends here… have they all turned against me for something I never wanted either, if they haven't died? Is that all that awaits us out there now?"

There was an ache of deep sorrow. As rough as this whole incident was on Ghost and Hollow, it really wasn't any easier on Hornet. Actually it might be worse for her. However bad it felt to be talked about like the mindless drone you were supposed to be, like you were complicit in an unforgivable plan just by being forced into it by your very existence… how much worse must it be, coming from former friends in your own home? To be a bug from a tight-knit culture and personally ostracized by possibly the only living members of it because your best wasn't good enough?

They placed one hand on top of hers.  _ At least we'll always stay with you.  
_

"Yes… maybe." She didn't seem too sure. Was she mad at them? No… the same fear they'd seen from Hollow?

They realized also that Grimmchild hadn't been around for the spider scuffle.  


"Ah, yes. Worry not for our fiery friend; I've tucked the charm safely away. I felt it prudent to reduce our risk of death by unpredictable children."

Oh.  


"In any case, I should've expected there would always be tension here because of what my mother did. Not everyone accepted her method of ensuring an heir. Of course they wouldn't understand that we have at least as much dislike for the Pale King as they do."

A wave of hurt came off of Hollow, and they withdrew their head from Hornet's knee and turned away before Ghost could try to poke at it.  


Worry and curiosity getting the better of them, Ghost waded around to Hollow's face and leaned in very close.  


_ No.  
_

Hollow's mental barrier was no longer a shield that simply repelled the intruder. It was a full-on field of weapons. Specifically spears, thorns, and buzzsaws.  


_ I'm going home. _ The big vessel climbed out of the pool, grabbed their nail, and stomped off toward the opposite tunnel.  


_ Hey, but… if you try to climb back down there, you'll… _

_ You know that's not what I mean.  
_

And then they were gone.  


Ghost dashed back to Hornet and tugged on her cloak.  


She sighed and put her head into her hands. "I fear I've made a grievous error with my words… if they're going where I think, then they should be  _ physically  _ safe, but… well, when they last saw it, it was still there."

Something tapped Ghost on the shoulder. They turned around to see Snoid standing a little bit away, holding his staff close.  


"As, ah… interesting as it's been to spend time with your family… don't take this the wrong way, but you guys are considerably more messed up than I imagined, and I have no interest in potentially getting killed for being seen with you, so I think it would be best to part ways at this point." He held out his staff toward the two siblings. "I guess that also means I really don't have any right to this."

Ghost tentatively took the staff.  _ Will you be okay without it, though? _

Snoid shrugged. "Eh… I'll manage somehow." He started walking back toward where they first came in, then paused to turn around and wave awkwardly. "Good luck with all your weird family drama, I guess."

Holding the staff in one hand and running the other over its head, Ghost nudged Hornet with their elbow and stared intently at the tunnel leading to the tram.  


"We should go, yes. It won't be easy on them to see their old home like that. And I am still worried about their injuries. But they may still need space, so stay with me."

_ Ah, you think I'd just immediately run up and cling to their face or something.  
_

Hornet crossed her arms. "I  _ know _ that is exactly what you would do. So don't. You don't have to always be physically attached to one of us."

Ghost sighed as loudly and melodramatically as a telepathic ball of void and drama possibly could.  _ Fine… _

The pair then set off wordlessly for the tram stop. Once they reached it, the tram was of course not there; it needed to be called back. Ghost fumbled around in their void, searching for their tram pass, and Hornet interrupted with a nudge from her own. Right… of course she'd have one.  


They watched her slot the pass into the mechanism for it. Soon after, the ground began to rumble, and then the rumbling grew to fill the room as the tram rolled into the stop.  


The tram door opened, and the two siblings stepped inside and sat next to each other. Hornet got up briefly to go to the control panel and direct the tram toward the Basin.  


As she came to sit back down and the tram started moving, Ghost was examining the staff Snoid gave them. They rubbed a hand over the lifeless mask and stared into the empty eye holes, wondering what it would be like to have this one alive with them now. Though it wasn't logical to miss people they never knew, there was an ache of longing in their heart. The existence of the vessels was a paradox; not only were they born both alive and dead, they were inclined to be social yet designed to never live that way. They needed each other for the same reasons they couldn't have each other.  


Well, at least most of them were resting together now...  


Despite their usual lack of value for the physical remains of the dead, Ghost hugged this one close and pressed their face against it as though there was any of the poor creature there to be comforted by the gesture.  


_ I want to at least know who you were.  
_

___  


_ The light at the top beckoned them, all of the curious little void children. So powerful was its draw that its subjects had little to no care for each other or themselves, for the sake of reaching it. It told them not to care.  
_

_ The higher this one climbed, the more it learned to care.  
_

_ This was a weakness from which all of them suffered. Some just came into it later than others. Most gave up on it after enough betrayals, but the damage was already done by then.  
_

_ This little one refused to stop helping and trusting, even after learning it would always come back to bite them, even when their shell became so battered they couldn't hope to continue much longer.  
_

_ They were one that piqued the interest of the snail, and one of the few he could safely approach.  
_

_ He was also the only one who never betrayed them. He had no reason to, not being drawn toward the light like the others were.  
_

_ The snail would help the vessel ascend, and the vessel would defend him from danger. Although the snail did have his own shell and magic, the vessel got the sense that he couldn't come back if he was killed, and besides that, a vessel wasn't a person anyway, only a body whose one purpose was to give itself up for the people. It was an extremely rare privilege to even get a chance at this. Especially after the light disappeared.  
_

_ Even no longer having a real goal, the pair stayed together. They'd explore, fight off panicked sibling shades and the occasional Deepnest beast, sometimes just sit somewhere safe and enjoy each other's company… the vessel would squeeze into the snail's shell with him when it was time to sleep… _

The tram rumbled to a stop. Ghost, still hugging the vessel head, noticed Hornet's hand on top of theirs.  


"He didn't name them," she observed.  


Ghost cocked their head in confusion.  


"Names are for those you love, so they know how to stay with you. I never thought it possible to love someone and not have a name for them. But those two…"

Ghost had never put much stock into the significance of names; Hornet had given them a name, and immediately tried to kill them. Zote called them many names, and well, the less said about him, the better. Meanwhile, the friendliest people they knew usually didn't have anything to call them.. They just sort of accepted that they had one now.  


"Well, let's go find Hollow." Hornet stood up and stepped off the tram into the Ancient Basin, and hopped down onto the rocky ground. Ghost followed.  


A lesser mawlek skittered into view, immediately catching her attention. Her needle was clean through it a split second later, and she reeled it in, dodged and parried its claw swipes, and then stabbed it again until it died. Finally she bit into it.  


Ghost peered over her shoulder. They knew she ate other bugs, but had never gotten to see exactly how it worked.  


"Not my first choice for prey," she remarked in between slurping up the parts her venom dissolved. "Appallingly spicy in both attitude and flavor. I don't trust the alternative, though." She suspiciously eyed and hissed at a shadow creeper on the wall.  


After Hornet finished her meal, the pair resumed their trip down. Eventually they reached the point where the area branched off. One way led to the Palace Grounds, where presumably Hollow had gone off to. The opposite way…

Ghost paused to stare at the vessel staff. Siblings weren't meant to be alone.  


They grabbed Hornet's shoulder. She whirled around. "What the.. what do you-?"

_ Sorry. But listen. You go find Hollow. I have to do something else.  
_

"Ghost what are you…" But they were already off. "Ah, whatever."

They stared intently down the long spiked tunnel, crouched down as if to pounce on something, and charged up a crystal dash.  


___  


They gazed at the head on the staff, and then at the other corpse, their kin who'd been lost in the far corner of the Ancient Basin… lost in every sense of the word, and more than any lonely creature ever deserved to be. Not even out exploring the livelier parts of the kingdom like the one in Greenpath. Just tucked way down below the world, with nobody ever knowing they were here.  


Siblings weren't meant to be alone… 

They carefully placed the staff on the ground next to the other body. Even though they'd personally already put the other one to rest… maybe they could help this one find peace the same way. Maybe the staff vessel would feel safe with the rest of the siblings, now that none of them fought each other anymore. 

And maybe it was a little bit less sad to see the lost one's remains no longer alone.  


Maybe, too, the staff vessel would know their friend would be okay.  



	9. Cat's in the Cradle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hollow heads back home, but home is not there for them.

Hollow ducked out through the tram door. That thing sure seemed smaller than they remembered… at least the door was still relatively accommodating for their horns… they realized then that they didn't actually know how big their own horns were. They ran their hand up the horn on the same side to check, only to have to stop part of the way up from the sting of overextending.

The Ancient Basin… this place had been here since long before Hallownest. They weren't sure how they knew that. Had someone told them, or was it another of those old void instincts, like a trace of some forgotten past life?

It hadn't always looked like this, in any case. It used to be more white, like the palace. Now it was dull and brown and crumbling… no one here but some new creepy bugs that seemed completely uninterested in anything _(Hah, and the palace people thought I was creepy)_ … a bunch of gross crust strewn around, its faded dark greyish-orange color suggesting former infection bubbles shriveled up and drained of their light. 

Hollow tried to amuse themself with the thought of child Hornet saying it looked like poo, because she totally would've and it kind of did, but that wasn't enough to take the edge off the cold, anxious grip in their chest.

Maybe they should try directing that into something else. Ghost had asked them about their arm earlier… focusing on their own curiosity about this, and knowing anyway that it was probably not safe to be unaware of the current extent of their injuries especially when alone, Hollow stuck their nail into the ground and pushed back the longer side of their cloak to take a look at the damage.

Where their arm should've been, and covering most of that side, was copious amounts of scarring very similar to the crust on the ground and walls. A few strands of silk remained from Hornet's web-bandages that had apparently washed off in the hot spring. Unlike their elegantly smooth black carapace, the scars were ugly and blistered and throbbing and they couldn't look anymore this was disgusting but it was also weirdly fascinating (they had, for at least as long as they could remember, always had some kind of draw toward the side of nature that other bugs found disturbing) and honestly they'd probably find it kind of cool if not for how it happened, but it would make the pain come back full force if they had to think about…

_ "Ugh, barf, you're falling apart like a decaying corpse. Then again, that's literally what you are, so actually this isn't a bad look for you. _

Okay, so much for thinking there was any way it could look cool.

Something bumped into their leg. One of the creepy bugs. They backed up, staring at it while gripping the side of their cloak across their chest like some kind of shield, and watched the bug harmlessly go on its way.

What even were those bugs? They gave off an aura that was almost as primeval as the void itself, but Hollow had never seen any during the Pale King's reign, and they couldn't recall him ever talking about what used to live here. Perhaps they were there before and disappeared when he took the place?

_Is that bug older than me? If it could think, would it hate me for living here?_

Hallownest society had taught itself that having a mind was usually a requirement for deserving respect. However, these ancient creatures seemed to command respect simply for the virtue of lasting so long without ever needing to evolve their own minds (though that made it a bit puzzling as to how there were corpses around with signs of having been infected). Yet also… there was something deeply unsettling about them that Hollow couldn't place.

Maybe they shouldn't be alone here… wasn't this how all the spiderlings' horror stories had started? But more than that, the place really had been hit bad. The Moth had shown them her work on it, actually; she wanted them to like it, but they'd desperately dismissed it as a trick to manipulate them into complying with her. But she didn't lie. This was how it really was.

The dead infection crust didn't extend this far into the Basin, near where they recalled the path to the White Palace was, but much of the old structure in this area had collapsed. They watched a chunk of ceiling fall down and crush one of the creepy bugs. Its brethren didn't spare a glance.

Some royal retainer husks lay around on the ground, and Hollow's fear grew greater. There was no way he'd just leave them lying around outside like that, was there?

They clutched their nail so tightly their claws dug into their palm. They couldn't deal with this. Not here. If anything had happened to the palace… they couldn't handle that.

_It's okay. Deep breaths. She would've showed me if she'd done anything to the palace, right? Father probably did something to protect it. There has to be an explanation. It'll be there. He'll be there.  
_

But what if he wasn't? There were already so many bad signs, the path being crumbled and caved in to the point of being difficult for someone their size and no one had even cleaned it up at any point, as well as the presence of the dead retainers and the weird bugs. What if their whole world really had just disappeared without them? What if he was there, but he'd hate them for letting this happen and then having the nerve to come back? At least that would mean he was alive and safe, though.

Aaah… they needed their siblings here. Except, their siblings apparently hated the Pale King; they might not like Hollow anymore for wanting to come back here and see him again. How can anyone really care about you if you have to be afraid to let them know you love someone they don't? They'd seen what happened to people who loved the wrong person.

_Siblings are better off without me, if they're in danger for associating with me. Selfish to want them here.  
_

If the king wasn't here either, then… they might not have anyone ever again.

They knew what happened to people who didn't have anyone.

They shouldn't be expecting anyone to care about them. It was a wonder anyone ever did.

Weak, broken, and alone due to their own fault… all they could do at the moment was lie down and cry. It didn't matter whether or not they had a voice; no one would hear them anyway.

Not even _she_ would hear them. They wouldn't want her to, and she only liked them because she wanted to make them think like her, but at least then they'd have something familiar.

They burrowed into the rubble just to feel like something was hugging them, and pressed all their weight onto one side so they could forget there was supposed to be an arm there. Even with their cloak as a buffer, the rocks jabbed into the repulsive yet captivatingly soft scar tissue. It hurt just like it was supposed to. At least something was normal here.

The one good thing about being alone was, it meant they could want things without hurting anyone important.

___

Hornet climbed, jumped, and needle-grappled through the ruins of the Basin, really quite a bit more than was necessary, but it took off some stress.

Which was slightly helpful when her heart dropped at the sight of long thin black limbs… giant white horns… buried in rock and brick… shadow creepers chowing down…

She cursed profusely and made a beeline straight for her fallen sibling, panic rising, heart pounding, hoping she wasn't too late, aggressively skewering the unwelcome scavengers.

Hollow tilted their head to look at her, shifting a small amount of the rubble.

"Are… are you all right?" Hornet panted. She paused to catch her breath and then got to work on moving the heavier chunks of stuff off her sibling. "I'm sorry; I never should've let you come here alone… have you gotten hurt?"

They shook their head.

She didn't quite believe them. Of course they wouldn't tell her if they needed help again after she'd done so much for them already. Of course they'd just keep making her worry more in their attempts to do the opposite of that. She started dragging at a broken slab of stone…

...And then Hollow backed up out of the mess, sending Hornet and her precarious perch tumbling. They stood up (with some amount of difficulty, having only the one hand for balance and using it to clutch their injured side) and shook off the remaining dirt.

Hornet sighed in both relief and irritation. "You were in there on purpose, weren't you?"

They only stared at her with the most deliberately innocent look they could get across, and shrugged.

It grated on her how _cute_ they could look when they wanted to. And she could tell they did that on purpose. Well, it didn't work on her. She didn't play that sort of nonsense with anyone. The worst part was that it inevitably worked anyway. (Ugh, and she just _knew_ she was in for this all the time from Ghost especially…)

She shouldn't be mad at them anyway; as she'd pointed out to Ghost, it couldn't be easy for them to be here. They hadn't even reached the Palace Grounds yet, and she'd expected at least that, but it was better that she found them before they had to see that. Especially since…

"...Did you even notice you were being bitten by… never mind; I don't want to know right now." With the worry alleviated for now, she looked more closely at the shadow creepers she'd killed. Void leaked from their wounds… she didn't think they were made of void, as their dark shells didn't match the pure black of the void nor the bright white of the king's creations, but apparently they fed on it. It would seem she'd made the right call to not assume them edible.

"Anyway… if you're wondering where Ghost is, they had some business to take care of that of course they didn't bother to tell me about." She brushed herself off and stepped forward to take Hollow's hand. "Listen. There's something you need to see, and I'd rather you not have to bear it alone."

The vessel hesitated and shivered as she led them into the path. It was like a magnetic force repelling them, and by extension, her.

"Well, I suppose we can leave it for later if you're not ready, though I fear you'll never be."

Hollow shrank back and hung their head… shame? Sadness? It was hard to tell. Ugh, she really ought to start considering how others might take her words beyond when they were meant as threats...

"That's not anything against you, though! It's just that…" She fiddled with her fingers, searching for the right words. "We are talking about your home, after all. Our home. It was difficult for me as well." 

Hornet didn't have as much attachment to the White Palace specifically, with how much of a contrast it was from her old Deepnest village, but she had good memories of it too. It had been a lot of fun to sneak around, scare the royal retainers, web up and climb around in places she knew she'd get in trouble for… bond with Hollow regardless of whether or not they were capable of the same feelings (though it was moot now that she knew the truth, she never had gotten a satisfactory answer as to why an inability to feel love would make them unworthy of receiving it anyway)...

She moved closer to Hollow and caressed their face. "I'll stay with you. We can wait for Ghost too, if you'd like."

They snorted and pushed past her into the narrow path. This wasn't the reaction she expected (and was surprisingly rude, from them of all people). But then, the two vessels did seem to have a strange relationship, sometimes best friends and other times wanting nothing to do with each other. Typical for siblings, from what she'd seen of other families, but confusing to her, having grown up effectively an only child. Now she'd have to brace herself for becoming sucked into the same dynamic.

She shrugged and followed the stubborn vessel, jumping ahead to help them climb what used to be a staircase, and the both of them emerged into a massive cavern.

A massive empty cavern. There used to be an entire palace here, probably almost as big as the City of Tears. There would be guards posted at the entrances, servants running errands, gardeners pruning plants, knights training for missions… now there was only the dusty, crumbling remains of the main doorway, guarded by a single dead kingsmould.

Hollow stood and stared, shivering and gripping their nail close as if it was also about to be taken away.

"This is what you were afraid of back there, isn't it?"

They didn't answer; only sank to their knees and onto the ground, their nail clattering on top of them. They didn't seem to care about that.

Hornet pushed the nail aside and patted her sibling. "This is why I suggested waiting," she said in a more gentle voice than she was used to (and instantly worried that it still sounded too harsh).

Hollow tilted their head back to look at her. Void tears dripped from their eyes. Then as soon as they noticed she saw, they shook their head as if sneezing and buried their face in the crook of their elbow.

"I can't say exactly that I understand how you feel." It didn't help that they couldn't just tell her with words, but even if they could, she got the sense they'd try to dodge the subject anyway. "I at least had time to process what was happening…"

She sat down and held their hand, running her fingers over the ridges of their wrist and finger joints, and the two just shared silence for a while.

Something was still weighing on her mind, though.

"You know I don't… really hate him, right?" The question struggled to leave her mouth; it was like exposing her own weakness. It tasted horribly bitter, worse than the mawlek and its spiciness; at least that served as sustenance and felt like the flavor had a reason.

Hollow snorted again, but allowed her to keep fidgeting with their hand.

"Yes, I do hold a fair amount of resentment, both for him and his wife. However. When I really don't like someone, I simply don't pay them mind after I'm no longer around them."

She did want to hate the king and queen. It should be easy. It should make it easier to not miss them. But if she didn't have any love for them, their actions wouldn't have felt so betraying. She wouldn't feel so guilty about her anger at the White Lady for trying to replace her mother, when she knew that was never actually the intention. She would've forgotten that the Pale King was trying to protect her from heartbreak (which became laughable when he kept finding ways to inflict it anyway). His giving up and running away and leaving her all alone to pick up the entire kingdom-wide mess wouldn't have stung nearly as bad as it did. At least the White Lady cared to keep her own garden alive. 

"You're more important than a personal grudge, in any case."

At this, Hollow withdrew their hand and tucked it under their body, and stared at her with their head tilted.

Hornet looked at them the same way, wondering what they were trying to communicate. "I… don't know what else there is to tell you about that."

Maybe they were surprised she'd call them important. They had been there every time the king lectured her about getting attached and how he never gave them an actual name… and now she was even more confused because, from what she could gather, they actually missed him? Well, that still made more sense than the thought of them developing a grudge and going along with the sealing anyway. Everyone knew agreeing to be a sacrifice was nothing less than the ultimate display of love and loyalty.

She had to wonder, then, if that meant Hollow had already known it wouldn't work. But then why do it? It felt entirely inappropriate to bring that up right now, though. So she just leaned against their shoulder, turned away so they wouldn't see her tears, and started weaving a strand of silk around her fingers.

___

Unlike the other two, Ghost had never known the Ancient Basin in its previous state. They'd never seen the White Palace as anything other than a hellish-but-oddly-tranquil buzzsaw maze dreamscape. Never knew the Pale King beyond "that jerk who killed his kids for nothing and then took the easy way out and didn't even talk to me when I tracked him down." So they didn't quite grasp how heavy this was for Hollow and Hornet before finding the pair huddled together at the Palace Grounds.

The air grew heavier and more somber the closer they got, to the point it felt almost wrong to be with them at this moment.

_Is it… okay to sit with you guys?_

_Do what you want…_ Even that much acknowledgement seemed to drain all of Hollow's energy. They didn't even move their head.

Ghost sorely wished to snuggle in between their siblings, or at least with Hollow if their void was still a risk to Hornet beyond the small touches she now seemed to tolerate, but the surrounding sense of despair felt impossible to fit their own experiences and feelings into. Not even like two opposing elements, but more like things that couldn't even exist on the same plane for fear of breaking reality itself. Despite this, they couldn't resist at least giving Hollow an awkward pat on the horn before finding somewhere to sit close by.

Was that despair what Hollow had been so fiercely hiding from them earlier? They'd gathered that the large vessel had been raised in the White Palace, but why would they be sad about its disappearance when they were born just to be used and then thrown away? 

It wasn't _"No pain to suffer."_ It was _"No voice to cry suffering."_ He'd known the whole time that they could suffer, and just didn't want to be forced to care. At least the White Lady had given them the impression she genuinely didn't think they could, and clearly very much appreciated Ghost's company and enjoyed talking to them even if she saw them as an unfeeling object while they were freshly mourning a friend's death.

Ah… hmm.

Even if they didn't understand grief for the Pale King specifically, they still knew the general concept all too well. They knew it was helpful just to be with someone you could trust to stay.

Hornet watched them expectantly, one hand rested on Hollow's head between their horns. Hollow had their face hidden behind their arm and just barely looked up enough to see what Ghost would do.

Feeling more sure now about their ability to be helpful, Ghost got up and walked toward their siblings, and wriggled in under Hollow's elbow. Which, they noted, technically wasn't the same thing as latching onto their face, Hornet, thank you very much…

 _Eh?_ Hollow tilted their head ever so slightly to look at Ghost.

The latter reached a hand forward and gave them a soft boop, and then snuggled against their side.

A wave of affectionate warmth washed over them, followed by a surge of emotion so intense they could hardly decipher it. After an unfathomably long time of unimaginable suffering, Hollow had been thrown into a world where suddenly everything they'd ever known was just gone. Because they couldn't save it. Because they loved the same king everyone else was now blaming for the devastation. 

Ghost was familiar with both grief and loneliness, but not so much the sheer ferocity with which those things fed into each other in a case like this. It shredded through the heart like a drunk garpede, leaving an aching emptiness much different from the kind the vessels were supposed to have. Or perhaps it was the same, but noticeably painful from the the juxtaposition with everything around it.

It was terrifying and overwhelming, to be honest, but something made them hesitate to pull away. The sensation of a weight being lifted, and more of the warmth.

_Thanks… both of you… for still wanting to be with me.  
_

Ghost responded by grabbing and hugging Hollow's forearm. 

The lifting of that weight only provided some relief from the rest of the crushing despair, but that was still something.

Ghost's eyes drifted toward the dead kingsmould at the doorway. They started to wonder what the possibility would be of entering its dream in their current form. Then again, if they didn't have a shell to go back to if they died in there, maybe that would be bad.

Hollow squeezed them close. _Don't do anything stupid. Not without me, at least. Can't lose you too.  
_

Like the other vessels, being alone was against Hollow's nature. Did that mean they'd been living with this ache the whole time? No wonder they seemed to always need someone on them.

Ghost scooted forward and licked their large sibling on the cheek.


	10. Out of the Frying Pan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes leave the depressing devastation that was once home, and enlist a reliable friend to take them... they hope somewhere better.

_ No, I'm serious; it is here! I use this one all the time.  
_

_ Quit pulling my leg.  
_

_ I swear, it is real! It's just, like, way down at the end or something.  
_

_ No, seriously, stop. It's very hard to walk like this.  
_

Ghost let go of Hollow's leg and dashed out of the way so the big vessel could step their nail onto the ground and walk forward with its aid.  


Hornet huffed. "Really, if you weren't so obviously intent on  _ something,  _ I'd think you were just exploring aimlessly while ignoring those of us," she glanced up at Hollow, "who have already expressed a wish to leave this place."

Ghost tugged her wrist.  _ I promise there really is a stag station! _

_ Well, they've found plenty of other things during their journey that no one would've expected,  _ they heard her think.  


_ Even the Old Stag didn't know about it before I found it.  
_

A small shiny object appeared in the distance, hanging from a fancy post. Eagerly, Ghost dashed ahead and headbutted the bell.  


Ow. Maybe that was a mistake.  


"You found a bell," Hornet deadpanned. "Marvelous. That proves nothing."

Ghost leaned toward the stagway tunnel. They should be hearing the rumbling of their friend's arrival soon.  


This was taking a while.  


_ Are you sure he wasn't infected? _ Hollow asked.  


Where was he? He definitely wasn't infected… he'd said something similar to Quirrel, though, about feeling his age…  _ no, please don't tell me… _

Finally, though, they heard the familiar rumble, and the big blue beetle emerged.  


Immediately, Ghost was joyously hugging the Stag's fluffy face, and then remembering they probably still shouldn't be doing that to non-void people, jumped back and faced their siblings.  _ I told you guys he'd be here! _

Hollow and Hornet could only stare in surprise.  


The Stag stared back at them, and then at Ghost, and then shook his head. "I was… not expecting a greeting such as this. Or for it to have been so long since you last called me, but... you've certainly grown since then, my friend!"

Ghost wasn't sure their height should really be the most immediately noticeable thing about them… then they noticed the Stag was looking at Hollow.  


Hornet noticed this as well. "How do you know the Hollow Knight?" She looked up at Hollow. "Do you know this stag?"

Hollow shook their head.  


"Ah, forgive me, then," the Stag apologized. "They do bear a striking resemblance to a faithful passenger of mine…" He looked at Ghost again, examining the shape of their horns.  


Ghost nodded eagerly in confirmation.  


The Stag's face brightened. "Well then! I am sorry I didn't recognize you; I'd forgotten how much a fresh molt can change a bug's appearance beyond size… my fellow stags did always take some time to regain their colors… are these your relatives? I haven't seen them before."

Hornet hesitated to say anything, which was very understandable after the hot spring fiasco.  


Ghost took her hand and led her closer to the Stag.  _ It's okay. He's my friend. We can trust him.  
_

"Ah… well, we are… a rare species. That's all I'll say on the matter."

Technically true, but it kind of hurt to have their relationship purposely obfuscated like that.  


"I see," the Stag replied. "I won't press further, then. But I will be more than happy to transport the three of you… ah… I hope the tall one won't have too much trouble."

Hollow eyed the seats on the Stag's back, attempting to judge whether or not they'd be able to fit, or even climb up there.  


_ Have you ever ridden a stag before? _

_ No. Father never did, so I assumed it was… beneath palace people, I guess? But if there's a station here, then that must mean others did.  
_

_ "Ah. Well, it's really fun. _ Ghost jumped into the back seat, then climbed up the back of the front seat and patted it.  _ C'mon! _

Hollow and Hornet looked at each other. Hornet shrugged and leapt onto Hollow's good shoulder, then onto the side of the Stag's back horn, then into the back seat with Ghost.  


_ Um… okay…  _ Sheathing their nail, Hollow backed up, crouched down, and took a leap… and tripped over the seats, smacking into the wall, bouncing back into the Stag's side, and sending everyone toppling into a big pile.  


"Whatever you are…" the Stag groaned, "...clearly not an acrobat."

___  


"Even with the… less-than ideal start, I'm glad to still be needed." The stag trotted briskly through the tunnels, slower than his usual gallop, as he needed to be mindful of the tall, one-armed bug holding on for dear life, but doing so tested his patience. It was boring, and also the whole reason to ride a stag was to get somewhere fast. He got the impression the tall one would be screaming if they were able.  


Clearly the thing to do, if he couldn't go at his preferred speed, was to make up for it with more talking.  


"I felt something different, you see. A sense of new peace throughout the kingdom, is the best I can describe it. I'd long since forgotten the sickness in the air, as it was barely noticeable in the stagways to begin with, but at that moment... it was gone. Like the kingdom itself was finally at rest. No more passengers… nothing for me to do but join it."

"I… what?" The lady sounded incredulous at such a statement. "The kingdom-wide peace, yes; that would be… but there's no way it's been long enough to decide that was all there was."

"That's probably true," the stag admitted. "However… there's been very little of a sense of time since the kingdom fell; surely I'm not the only one. I must clarify, though, that I was aware there may still be a chance. I went to my old nest to sleep with the hope of being woken by the bell again, but the thought that I may never wake up, and in that case it would only be right to end where I started."

This kind of talk was probably awkward for people he just met, now that he thought about it, but from his memories of passengers back in the old days, he'd had to get used to them offloading far more uncomfortable stories of their own lives. If he had five geo for every time someone felt the need to regale him about their adulterous affairs in the Pleasure House, or their Soul Sanctum conspiracy theories that they flat-out admitted could get him killed for knowing too much if they were true… conspiracy theories about the king being a baby-killer, which  _ also  _ could get him killed...  


Even with his annoyance at the tall one, he did quite appreciate this odd little family's general lack of talkativeness. And he did suppose the tall one deserved some patience; it couldn't be easy for such an awkwardly-built bug to get around on only three limbs. Even with the usual number, it made no sense to have a set of horns that size on such a thin bipedal body, and anyway it was just basic decency to be considerate of bugs with disabilities.  


"I apologize if my slow arrival worried the little one. I did come all the way from the top of the world to the bottom."

To be honest, though, the stag wouldn't have minded too much if he never got back up once he'd settled down at the Nest. No one could live forever anyway; old age had to do its thing sometime. That was just a fact of life.  


But the little one was still here, and had even found others. Indeed, it would've been grossly presumptuous to give up on the persistence of intelligent life (especially if the bar for intelligence was so low it didn't even exclude tripping over an entire stag beetle… but then, that was still better than city bugs anyway). What was more, these three were very physically different from most of the previous Hallownest residents he'd seen. Were there more like them out there? Was muteness common for their species, since the lady was the only one of this group who talked? Was it possible they'd been alive as long as himself, even? The tall one had clearly been through rough times and their nail certainly showed some age, and the lady spoke similarly to the way of the proud upper-class bugs and carried herself with the same sort of confidence and assertiveness (though somehow without coming off as a complete snob).

_ Life always finds the strangest ways to keep going,  _ he  thought _. _

___  


Hollow, silently screaming, clung tightly to the front seat with their whole body, foot and finger claws all digging into the upholstery. Even with their siblings holding onto their cloak, they'd be so much safer on this ride if they could get their other hand to hold on too, but…!

"You know, we could still try to squeeze you into the back, if you're not going to sit up anyway," Hornet offered.  


Hollow shook their head. You don't get up and move around on a bumpy ride with no walls to keep you in. That's just common sense.  


_ Okay, what if we ask him to stop first? _ Ghost tried.  


No. They'd rather not cause further inconvenience. It was selfish to have accepted the invitation in the first place, if their own flaws were going to slow everyone down. The only decent thing to do in this case was to accept the consequences. Also they couldn't see any way to fit back there anyway.  


_ Sigh… why is it so hard to get it into your head that we want you with us? _

_ I can't afford to mess things up. That makes people die.  
_

_ No, what makes them die is when they decide to make you fix all their problems for them and don't even give you any room to care about yourself! No one stopped me from doing what I wanted, and that's why I was able to help you. None of this is your fault, okay? _

_ Ah… I'm sorry I'm so difficult.  
_

Hollow wasn't sure what to make of what Ghost was telling them. At least it was a distraction from the threat of falling from a dangerous height off a moving stag and getting hurt and making him turn back around even after they already tripped over him and made him go slower for them and that still wasn't enough and also Ghost had somewhere important to be and it would be terrible to interfere any more with that than they already were…

A tiny hand rubbed their horn.  _ Hollow. Buddy. It's okay. You're gonna be okay. I love you, and you deserve to be loved.  
_

That couldn't be true. They could feel the edge of impatience. They really were an inconvenience.  


_ Yes. Love is inconvenient sometimes. But that doesn't make it bad.  
_

That didn't seem right. Love was not for the Vessel. It was only for other people, who depended on the Vessel to not care about it. Using it wrong made people die. It was impossible to use it right, because you can't get rid of it once it's there.  _ How is it good? _

_ Because bad things happen anyway and they're less bad when someone's there for you.  
_

Hmm… well, Hollow couldn't exactly say that was wrong. But…  _ Then they get worse when that someone goes away. It hurts too much.  _

Ghost slid onto Hollow's head and hugged them.  _ I know, buddy.   
_

It was still a mystery to Hollow why Ghost had been so intent on helping them without even really knowing them. Was it the family connection? Or was it that vessels, at least to some extent depending on upbringing, had some innate compulsion to put others above themselves? Or Ghost was just a really nice person… hahaha no, nobody would just help a stranger unless they thought they had to.  


Hollow closed their eyes so as to focus only on the reassuring touch.  


___  


The group arrived at the Crossroads station. Ghost was the first off the Stag, and waved their siblings over, bouncing eagerly. The Stag crouched down so that Hollow could dismount more carefully and hopefully not crash into anyone. Even so, the smaller siblings still had to guide them down.  


_ I'm sorry. You shouldn't have to wait for me. I know you want to hurry and find your friend.  
_

It was true that they shouldn't be wasting time. There might not be much of it, assuming they weren't already too late. Who knew what the infection might've done to her body since they last saw her? But also… what if she was still alive but suffering? Would they even be able to save her? What if they were too late because Hollow was too slow… but that was a horrible question; Hollow was just doing their best and still feeling so guilty about it and none of what happened to them was their fault at all, and just the thought of treating them like it was…

"Ghost, let go of me and help!"

Right. Yes. Hollow needed-  


CRASH!

Too late.  


"This is… ow... why I told you to help," Hornet grumbled, squeezing out from under the unsteady bug's big body and shaking their cloak off her horns, while the Stag hooked his horn carefully under them to help them up.  


"Next time, tall one, let's take an extra moment to ensure your safety as well as the rest of ours."

_ Sorry sorry sorry...  
_

_ No… that was my fault. _ Ghost, aching all over, stood up and shook themself off, then dashed to make way for Hollow's nail.  


As the trio exited the stag station, Ghost examined the environment. The Crossroads looked… really very similar to how it had when they'd first arrived, but with gross shriveled dead infection goo everywhere, drained of color as it had been in the Basin, and many more corpses. It seemed somehow wrong to think of the place as having been "lively" at the infection's peak, but… there really had been a lot going on here then, and this was quite a stark difference.  


_ This is... even worse than what the Basin got,  _ Hollow observed wistfully.  _ Is all of Hallownest like this? ...Actually, no, don't tell me. I'll just… I don't know.  
_

Ghost tugged lightly on Hollow's nail.  _ Come on. I need you. _ Normally they'd be brave enough to go check on Myla on their own; they'd done it so many times already, but they'd been so on edge since defeating the Radiance and didn't really know why and that just made them even more anxious and going in there alone now and finding something bad would just…  _ it shouldn't feel this bad I should be used to losing friends and I can't even compare that to everything these two lost, and they're still with me...  
_

They wished the Crossroads could go back to how it was when they'd first arrived. Technically it was safer now, but it was more unsettling than ever, and just  _ wrong.  _ So many bodies torn viciously apart by infection. __ The few living bugs they saw were either mourning or trying to wake up the dead ones, even with most of them in a state where it would've been cruel to have them alive, and darted off upon making eye contact. Even the vengeflies, known and named for their highly aggressive temperament, merely hissed at the interlopers and slunk away. Some gruzzers hopped about lazily, barely bothering to use their wings… no, they weren't lazy; they'd just lost hope. 

Hornet watched the gruzzers, mouth slightly open and watering, tongue flicking at her fangs… yet her eyes betrayed guilt and sorrow at the thought of attacking the poor things at their lowest point.  


The aspids, strangely, were the most pitiful. Formerly fat, brightly-colored, and very annoying, they now lay on the ground and in the rocky alcoves with their venom sacs dull and deflated. Some were breathing and occasionally twitching their wings, but beyond that, they showed no signs of life.  


_ I thought destroying the infection would help everyone… _

"It was never going to be an easy fix, unfortunately. The least he could've done was stay long enough to help in literally any way..." Hornet took a deep breath. "What we've done, really, was open up a path forward, and it's up to them as well as us to take it. If they can't… then we do what we can for them."

Ghost didn't have to wonder what exactly she was talking about, nor were they unfamiliar with the act; they only hoped it wouldn't prove necessary for anyone they knew.  


"You two go on while I tend to the aspids… yes, I know what they were like before, but I also know the sheer misery of venom depletion."

Ghost nodded and urged Hollow along.  _ Don't worry, bud. We're almost there.   
_

The vessels' shared aura of dread and despair was enough to be almost paralyzing, but still they pressed on, each empowered by the other's presence, into the eerily quiet crystal tunnel.  


Ghost stopped abruptly, causing Hollow to trip over them painfully and shatter several crystal growths.  


_ Sorry! My fault again! Are you okay? _

_ Ow… _ Hollow fumbled around, dazed and attempting to untangle from their own cloak.  


_ I'm sorry. I don't know if I can do this. She's usually singing, if she's okay. What if she's… like the bugs out there? _

_ I mean… _ Hollow slowly stood up, breaking more crystals with their horns and jumping back, snapping their nail out and hissing and staring down the offending rocks for several seconds before realizing nothing was threatening them, then calmly withdrew the nail and continued their thought as though nothing had happened.  


_ Really… it doesn't look bad here, at least. Except I don't trust the crystals. But I'm here if you need me… we're looking for a miner bug, right? Small, round, helmet and pickaxe? _

Ghost nodded, and with Hollow's help, gathered up the courage to search the area.  


___  


_ I can't find her! _ Ghost flopped onto the ground, having frantically searched every nook and cranny of Myla's favorite digging spot, as well as everywhere they saw Hollow searching (much to the larger one's annoyance).  _ Where did she go? She's always here! _

Hollow shrugged.  _ Maybe down into the mines? _

Ghost shuddered.  _ I hope not. There's a lot of dead miners down there that look like her. Also the mines just suck anyway. But I doubt she went down there.   
_

_ Well, maybe she- wait, where did you learn that kind of language? _

_ What, 'suck'? That isn't even bad, and it's not  _like you haven't said worse._   
_

_ Not where I thought you could hear! _

Ghost had to laugh at their flustered sibling.  _ I didn't, but you just admitted it! _

Hollow paused and shook their head.  _ I'm allowed to use those words because I am an adult, and also we are getting terribly off-track and should probably continue looking for your friend.  
_

_ Where, though? _ The momentary lighthearted mood was starting to wear off, and agitation was creeping back up.  _ What if she did go farther in? How do we know she's even in Crystal Peak at all? She could be anywhere! _

Hollow grabbed Ghost around the shoulders and picked them up.  _ Listen to me! _

Ghost's mind blanked, stunned at how quickly Hollow could snap into "commanding and assertive" from their usual beaten-down and docile demeanor, and really that they could muster this kind of intensity at all. Then again, they had to have been quite intimidating in their days as the knight closest to the king, and had definitely proven to take their responsibilities as such very seriously.  


_ First of all, you're the one who knows her and said she'd be here. Second, if she's not where she always is, that means she felt well enough to leave sometime after you last saw her. Which means there's a decent chance she's alive. Which… might also mean…  _ They set their small sibling gently down.  _ Never mind. Let's check farther in.  
_

_ Trust me, pal, you wouldn't last two seconds in there when you can barely walk without falling over someone.  
_

Hollow stood up as straight as possible given the limited vertical space and their general not-great posture, head held high, nail pointed down in front of them.  _ I can walk just fine when someone doesn't insist on being underfoot.  
_

Ghost shrugged playfully, a cover for the undercurrent of nervousness about bringing someone as physically unsteady as Hollow into the scary pointy murder cave, and turned to lead the way.  _ You're the boss, Adulty McBabytaunter. By the way, we're actually the same age, and also I'm technically the king now.  
_

_ Hah… yeah. Those are definitely things that are true and that I was aware of the entire time. Yep. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What being king means to most people: Governing a land and being responsible for the people in it and how they're allowed to live  
> What it means to Ghost: Sneaking into forbidden places, having an excuse to be allowed to swear.


	11. A Miner Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two newly-lucid bugs attempt to comprehend this confusing world. Hornet puts way too much responsibility on herself.

Something was wrong with that bug, the cute curious one. Was it even a bug? The pitch blackness of its eyes and body seemed to swallow up the beautiful light refracted and reflected between the crystals. It was like someone cut a hole in reality and dressed it up in a haphazard attempt to mask its true nature.

What did it want? Could it want anything?

Something told her this thing was dangerous. That it had perhaps already killed people.

It did carry a weapon...

It never made any move to harm her, though. Maybe it only killed others because they scared it, and she made it feel safe. Maybe because she talked to it like a friend. It never talked back or joined her in singing, but it was good at listening, and even appeared interested in what she had to say.

That must be what it wanted. A friend. A safe place. Poor thing probably never had anyone else bother to talk to it.

_No. It doesn't feel, or think, or like anything. It could never be your friend.  
_

Was it just her imagination, then, interpreting the creature's increasing clinginess as worry for her health, the longer she went without sleep and the more her mind wandered to the light and voices?

The more it visited, the more blatantly _wrong_ she could see its existence was.

The crystals hated it. They said so.

_It shouldn't be here._

_It shouldn't be at all.  
_

_It exists only to consume. It will kill everything if we don't kill it first.  
_

_KILL THE EMPTY ONE!_

It approached. She charged. It ran away. Why did it run when she knew how easily it could fight and kill?

___

Everything hurt. The darkness wouldn't leave. The darkness was the source of everything bad. The light was warm, protective, beautiful, and it talked to her and showed her good things. Lots of shiny things. It hurt so much. But that couldn't be the light's fault. The light was good and safe. The light was the only real friend. It even told her so.

The darkness expanded. It smothered the light, and it did so with purpose. She was powerless to stop it. It didn't care about her feelings. It never cared about anything. It only consumed and destroyed… no, that was wrong; "destroyed" implied there was something left. There was nothing. There would never be anything again. The light didn't exist anymore. Myla didn't exist anymore.

Except she still did. She had to, in order to be thinking about it, right?

Everything still hurt. The crystals were silent. Did that mean they were dead? _Haha, don't be silly, Myla. Rocks aren't alive to begin with._ They didn't look different, at least, except the orange glow was gone.

_Light still exists, then… does that mean dark isn't bad? The light was lying? But it sounded so nice...  
_

The dark bug wasn't what made her sick, was it? No… the one thing she could be sure of about that bug was, whether or not it was capable of caring about her, it never wanted to cause her harm. 

She'd tried to kill it… right? Was that real? Its last several visits were foggy and blurred like a really long fever dream… 

From what she could recall, the dark bug had never actually done anything bad. Where did the idea even come from that it would? If it could kill her, then why didn't it, unless it really did care?

Maybe it was some kind of guardian. A common legend among miners was that the crystals had a guardian, so maybe she could have one too. Or maybe it was just a regular bug; she didn't know what bugs usually looked like outside the mines.

Although still weak and achey, she'd have to go find her friend and apologize.

___

Was the outside always like this, so dark and dull and full of death and depression compared to the colorful shiny crystal cave? No wonder the miners never liked to come out here. Sure, poking bodies with your pickaxe was kind of entertaining sometimes, but maybe not with so many; this was clearly the site of some kind of catastrophe, and it was probably best to not stay in one place for long.

At what seemed to be the center of the destruction was an ominous building shaped like a gigantic burrowing bug of some sort. There was a weird familiarity to it that she could only recall in faded, feverish bits and pieces that hardly made any sense. Was that what a wyrm looked like? Maybe it was her friend's house?

Trembling with trepidation, Myla readied her pickaxe in case of attackers, and approached the maw of the mysterious giant.

It was too dark. She shouldn't be in here. Darkness was bad, right? The safe place was her mining spot, with her helmet light reflecting off the crystals and brightening everything. Everything in her was screaming to run back to that.

But at the same time, the thought came with the memory of sickness, a trace of the aches and burning and queasiness layered on top of what was already lingering. Maybe that meant the darkness was actually safer.

Once her eyes adjusted, she was able to examine the strange structure that sat in the middle. It looked like… a massive stone egg? She couldn't even see the whole thing, it was so big, but that was the impression gotten from the rounding of the spirals carved into it. There was a gaping hole in the middle of these carvings, much smaller and more obviously egg-shaped, surrounded by busted chunks of stone. What could've hatched from this egg? Would she find out if she stayed long enough, and did she want to?

She jumped at the sound of footsteps, and whirled around and prepared to strike with her pickaxe. "Who's there? I-I can fight, you know!"

A bug came into view, not a miner and not the weird dark one, but roughly Myla's own size. The bug turned to look at her, then jumped and buzzed around frantically before smacking into the wall and falling down.

"Wait, I'm sorry!" Myla ran toward the stunned bug. "I-I was just s-scared, and…

"Ah… well, with a job this big, I guess someone was bound to catch me." The bug sat up and rubbed his head. "Very sorry you had to, though; us Menderbugs are meant to be swift and secretive so that nobody has to get impatient and wonder when their favorite broken things will be fixed."

Myla stood her pick on the ground and rested one hand on the top of it. "So… you were going to fix that egg thing?"

The Menderbug nodded. "Yes, that and clean up the temple. This is a sacred place, you know. Appalling that they let it go like this, honestly. Do you worship here?"

Myla shook her head. "I've actually never been here before. Or… hardly anywhere outside the mines."

"Oh. Well, that egg over there, people come in and pray to it… although…" He fidgeted nervously and glanced back at the temple door. "There sure are a lot more dead bodies out there than I remembered… do you think it has anything to do with that egg hatching? Maybe something big really was inside it?"

Myla shrugged. "I… I just hope it's not… whatever this temple is supposed to look like.

The Menderbug picked up his toolbox and walked up to the broken egg to peer inside. Myla leaned over his shoulder.

"M-maybe we shouldn't stay… what if this is a nest? What if its mother is near…" She trailed off as the light from her helmet fell onto a familiar bright white shape… or rather, half of one.

"Leaving a mess inside the shell, too… what a… lucky day for me." The Menderbug didn't sound much like he considered this lucky. Nevertheless, he took a step inside. Myla followed, clinging onto his arm, then broke off and darted toward the white shape.

"Oh…" A sudden chill gripped her heart. This was indeed the empty, broken shell of her friend's head. A shiny nail lay not far away.

The Menderbug hovered close by, cautiously. "Looks like something big really did go down here, huh?"

"Yeah…" Myla sighed. "I think I know what it was, too."

"Oh?"

"Well… see, I had this friend who would visit me, and… I think they lived here."

"Hmm… a temple seems like an odd place to live, unless you're the god being worshipped there." The Menderbug paused for a moment. "Are you saying your friend was a god?"

"Ah! N-n-n-no, no, not at all! I mean, I guess it's not impossible… but actually, my theory is… well, I got really sick, and my friend was worried about me, and I was… I was scared and hearing voices and attacked my friend and they ran away, and went back home where they should've been safe, but then the egg hatched and the baby… ate my friend."

The Menderbug sighed sadly. "Yes, gods can indeed be fiercely territorial. Much safer to not get involved with them at all. That's what's great about the Menderbug Guild; it's all just bugs working together for the community. But I am sorry for your loss."

"It's okay. My friends die all the time." Myla ran her fingers along the rough, jagged edges of the broken mask and the smooth roundness of the eye holes. This shell was thicker than those of other bugs… it made sense for a god to be especially tough… but it wasn't all one chunk, either; it seemed to be multiple layers neatly stacked together. That wasn't something she'd seen before, except in certain rocks. Maybe this bug really had been her guardian, then, like the one the crystals had.

The question, too, came to her mind… could gods really die? She'd learned long ago that memories kept them alive… maybe that meant her friend was still around in some form? What about the thing that ate them? She didn't know what it could've been, or whether there was anyone who did; that should mean it's gone, right? Was it safe to assume that?

This giant egg did have what seemed like imprints of magic that used to be here but no longer was, a thinly-veiled illusion of being bigger on the inside than on the outside. Really kind of disorienting, if she stared at the walls too long.

"Hey…" The Menderbug touched her arm. "I haven't seen any of my guild members around here. You'd think a project this big would call for more bugpower than just me… they must be spread thin, if other places are anything like this. And I can see that you've already got experience with tools…"

It took a moment for Myla to piece together what her new friend was trying to say. "You're as-asking me to join?"

"Ah… only if you want to." He paused to think for a bit. "I suppose a request like this is weird when we only just met and... don't even have each other's names."

"Ah, right." Myla had forgotten about names; she'd grown used to it being just herself and her apparently-nameless god friend. "I, uh-m-my name's Myla."

The Menderbug took her hand and shook it. "Pleased to meet you, Myla. I'm Jerri."

___

Slinking through Greenpath, Hornet's thoughts drifted to how allowing the vessels to leave her sight again was a terrible idea. Ghost could hold their own, sure, but they were no bodyguard. But if Hornet was to be of any use to literally anyone else, she couldn't spend all her time just babysitting those two; they'd have to learn to get along well enough to not get each other into too much trouble. They were at least in much better shape than all those bugs in the Crossroads who needed help urgently… although Hollow was still weak and had worryingly little sense of self-preservation, as well as (and this was a terrifying thought) probably thinking it was normal to be in so much pain all the time, and in that case, they might not be able to tell if they were making their injuries worse… and that wasn't even counting the fact that the big idiot would try to hide any pain that would worry anyone...

_No. It's okay. Even if they fight, Ghost cares about Hollow and can read their mind. They've worked together before. I have to trust them.  
_

She had to remember, too, that personal attachment made it so much easier to worry about them than she probably needed to. Letting your own wants cloud your judgement was what led to people dying. The helpless bugs in the Crossroads would die if she ignored them.

Hornet always made her kills as quick and cleanly as possible; more than anything, she hated to see suffering, especially when there was any reason for it to be her fault. It meant she was failing her job as protector. Not too unlike Hollow failing their job as the Vessel… ugh, no, she couldn't think that; she had everything so easy compared to them! For starters, she still had all her limbs. More importantly, Hollow never had a chance… although they did still go along with the sealing… it hurt to think they might have consciously chosen that while knowing it wouldn't work, like they'd betrayed her. It shouldn't even matter now that they were out, but it bothered her anyway.

She'd talk with them about that later, maybe, if she could catch them in a better emotional state. For now, she needed to get this food and water to the incapacitated aspids.

She zipped back toward the Crossroads with her prey in a silk bag slung across her back. She'd have to come back for more, as there was only so much she could carry at a time, but this would do for now. Mosscreeps' camouflage conveniently doubled as a portable water supply, and anyway the aspids would hunt for themselves again once they were nourished… that didn't seem like an especially good thing; why was she helping them, those aggressive yet cowardly, hovering, multiplying venom-spitters… parents who give birth only to shield themselves with their own children?

Because, quite simply, she knew how. Her opinions of them as a species mattered not in comparison to them being in need and her having the means to help. Plus, there was comfort in having some control over a situation, after watching Hallownest fall and suffer and being unable to help anyone besides providing merciful deaths to the infected. 

Thinking about it, that must also be why she assisted in the final battle in the way she did. She'd put herself at great risk, placed a terrifying amount of trust in the little vessel for a move she wasn't sure was even possible. She was sick of being useless while people needed help.

She approached a small group of aspids lying weakly on the silk nests she'd made for them so they wouldn't just be in the dead infection goo.

"Here. I've brought prey. Take it and restore your strength." Kneeling down, she took a mosscreep out of her bag and presented it. She'd partially liquefied it with her own venom already; aspids didn't have the right mouthparts to eat solid food, and so normally did this themselves. If they got enough food in them, then their bodies would start producing venom again, and… hopefully they'd be more tolerable without the infection.

She continued on in the direction of Crystal Peak, offering more of the pre-killed prey to the weak survivors she'd found. Some acted too proud to accept, but could be heard sneaking some bites or slurps once left to their own devices.

Reaching the entrance to Crystal Peak where her siblings had gone in, Hornet stepped cautiously inside. Even she tended to shy away from this place. The crystals in there, despite not being technically alive, were known to grow like plants and were even rumored to be parasitic. And indeed, there were species of bugs that had crystals growing on their shells, but that was merely an evolutionary trait that helped them survive, and not a result of the enigmatic rocks overtaking them like a fungus… right? 

The thought of such was more unsettling than the Radiance's infection, even; the light goddess, at least, had the familiarity factor of intelligence and emotions. If the crystals did in fact act in such a way, they did so with absolutely no thought or feeling of their own. Not even a will to survive, as they weren't alive to begin with. They didn't act in chaos, but they also weren't under anyone's order. Nothing to attempt to reason with or fight against. They just were how they always had been.

They had their territory, they didn't care who stumbled in, and she wouldn't risk it if she didn't have loved ones already in there. She shouldn't risk it anyway. Those two had made their choice, and Ghost had probably been all over those caves many times before now anyway.

She turned and slowly started to walk away; she still had things to do. However, she couldn't resist a quick glance back at-

CRASH!

Hornet lay on the ground, hurt and dazed, no idea how. Once she could breathe again, she could see that the same was true of the attacker still on top of her.

"Hah… serves you right."

_Sorry._ Ghost rolled off of her, but kept a hand on her wrist. Their soft void-cloak tickled.  _Have to hurry, though. Hollow's trapped. In Crystal Peak._

"Oh, for the love of…" Hornet withdrew her hand and rubbed her temples in exasperation, and sighed. "Of course they are." Of course the weakest sibling would get into trouble they couldn't get out of and make her worry and risk her life for them YET AGAIN, and of course it would happen in probably the most dangerous region of the kingdom… "I still have work to do; can't you help them?"

Ghost leaned onto her shoulder. _ They won't let me get close.  
_

The crystal cave appeared in her mind. Sharp rocks everywhere, shining and reflecting light… fly corpses scattered around... and a visibly-terrified Hollow, partially encased in crystal, thrashing whatever on them was still free… smaller crystals PIERCED THROUGH THEM?

Of _fucking course._ No way could she expect them to just… let her help other people.

Honestly, she should leave these idiots to their own devices and get back to helping everyone else. Vessels were cursed from the start and shouldn't still be running around anyway.

Besides, if Hollow wouldn't learn to accept help when they needed it, that was their own problem and they had to be responsible for dealing with it.

"Fine. Lead the way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Jerri's infection had him under the illusion that his guild was still alive. Poor guy has no idea what really happened other than just a vague "something killed a bunch of people and it probably involved the big egg somehow."
> 
> \- HOLLOW PLEASE THIS IS EXACTLY WHY GHOST DIDN'T WANT TO TAKE YOU DOWN THERE. CRYSTAL PEAK SUCKS.


	12. Crystal Peak SUCKS!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically what the chapter title says. But also they find something cool about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also whoops some self-harm in here that wasn't supposed to happen but dangit Hollow PLEASE LOVE YOURSELF

_Stupid, stupid, stupid! This is why I was never supposed to make decisions! No one should ever listen to me!_

Hollow squeezed their eyes shut so as to not look at the crystals… they were evil… they reflected blinding light. They reflected _her._ Not so much at the moment, but some, thanks to the slight glow of their own pale mask. Unfortunately, though, they couldn't keep their eyes closed for long; they couldn't risk falling asleep. She might plague their dreams again. They wouldn't stand a chance. She would kill everyone who was still alive. _And it would be all my fault.  
_

All they could do was cry, from the crystals stabbed into them, the other crystals making them feel numb and cramped and stiff… how dangerous it would be for anyone to try to save them…

The precarious footing, the swarm of territorial flying bugs launching endless amounts of crystal lances...

The flash of light that bounced off every surface, the harsh glare, the fuzzy moth-winged silhouette…!

_You… go away!_

_ Buddy, it's okay. Let me help you.  
_

_No no no no NO STAY AWAY I'LL KILL YOU LEAVE ME ALONE I DON'T WANT YOU WE CAN'T DO THIS AGAIN  
_

_Hollow, please! It's me!_

_NO! PISS OFF, MOTH!_

The "moth" had gone. It wasn't her; she wouldn't just leave them alone because they told her to. They were trapped and alone and no one would be coming to help. 

_Please… just let me die right now. This isn't my world anymore anyway.  
_

They stretched their head toward a shard lodged in their arm and nudged it. A searing pain screamed from the wound. Good. They deserved that for being stupid enough to get into this whole predicament. They nudged it around a bit more, and pushed it a little further in, hissing from the pain.

Did hissing count as a voice? ...Maybe better not to think about that.

They wanted to shove some sharp crystals into their infection scars too. It angered them that they'd gotten stuck in a position where that wasn't possible.

Tears flowed from their eyes as they prayed for the void to take them completely.

"Hollow!"

They looked up. Hornet! And _the Moth…_ no. Dark-colored. Small. Only two horns. Still… Hollow growled deeply from within their void.

Hornet looked at Ghost. "You stay here." Then she jumped down and walked slowly towards Hollow, careful not to make any sudden movements… was she just trying not to hurt herself on spiky rocks, or could she tell how afraid her trapped and injured sibling was?

Light glinted off her needle as she unsheathed and aimed it. Hollow remembered that needle jabbing into their face, splitting their forehead open, and they knew she was just trying to help, they knew she didn't want to hurt them, they were already in more pain than anyone should ever be, there was no logical reason for the same thing to happen now, _but it's happening again she's going to stab me I CAN'T GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN  
_

"Hollow. Please. You know I won't hurt you."

They in fact did not know that right now, and eyed the needle with suspicion.

Hornet, too, took a moment to look at her needle, and then re-sheathed it. Then she approached cautiously and took their face in her hands.

Hollow took a minute to let their breathing slow, still jittery but ultimately unable to resist practically melting to a caring touch. They leaned in and gave their sister a light nuzzle.

"Good. Now. I need you to stay calm; I'll have to break these crystals, and I can do it without hurting you, but only if you're not thrashing about and getting in the way. Got it?"

They nodded shakily. 

She stepped back and looked them over, her gaze eventually settling on the shard they'd been messing with in their arm.

"Those will need to come out… you've been picking at that one, haven't you?"

 _Eh…_ They tilted their head and shrugged their armless shoulder.

Hornet sighed and started wrapping silk gloves around her hands. "Keep it up, I suppose, if you want to lose both arms… you're not as cute as you think you're being."

Hollow snorted. _I most certainly am, thank you very much._ This was simply a fact, regardless of their general lack of self-worth.

"I'm serious. You go gallivanting into danger and end up hurt, on top of the multitude of existing injuries for which you lack any apparent respect, and act like I'm supposed to find it amusing. Not that it's any surprise; you never had a proper concept of anyone's feelings about you..."

 _Well, let's see you try believing you're worth caring about after living like-_ They suddenly tensed, interrupted by the wave of agony from Hornet sliding the shard out of their arm.

"I'm sorry, but you're the one who made it worse. The tissue's torn and inflamed here; I don't know what else you could've expected. Honestly, I would've thought a knight would know better..."

Ashamed, Hollow laid their head down and stared at the ground, away from Hornet.

"No use apologizing if you're going to keep doing it."

Fair point… but they couldn't promise not to; besides the communication barrier, they had no idea how to make decisions that wouldn't get them hurt. Coming down here was supposed to be an escape from the emotional anguish of all the carnage in the Crossroads.

_A selfish motive, even with the excuse of trying to help someone else.  
_

This was what happened when the Vessel was allowed to make decisions, and an example of why it shouldn't.

In any case, though, they were pretty sure they knew perfectly well how much they'd hurt their family and everyone else by accepting the Pure Vessel role…! Having been forced to detach from their own emotions, they'd spent quite a lot of time learning to read those of others.

Did that mean they were losing that ability, now that they'd gotten more complacent with having their own feelings?

"You may want to close your eyes… well, assuming you're able to."

They did so, and about a second later, felt a jolt of pressure accompanied by shattering crystal. It happened a few more times, and then nothing. They opened one eye cautiously.

"See? That wasn't so bad. You know, if you'd just calmed down enough for Ghost to help, you could've been out sooner and saved us all some trouble."

_ Hey, don't be mean. They were scared.  
_

What the… was that the cave itself?

"Who said that?"

Hornet and Hollow immediately whirled their weapons, Hornet's needle accidentally catching Hollow's leg and causing them to fall on top of her.

_Hey, it's okay! It's me!_ A panicked Ghost darted toward their siblings, twitching and scratching, their mind-voice somehow heard from everywhere in the room instead of just appearing as ideas inside a recipient's head.

Ah… right. That's what they were doing before, once the pair had first gotten to this point. Hollow had been ready to chalk that up to an illusion caused by fear, but apparently...

"Ow… Ghost, what fresh sort of sorcery are you…?"

_ It's the crystals! They're like some kind of mind echo. I think that's how the miners got infected.  
_

_Ah… maybe stop doing that, then?_

_I don't know if I can. They just do it._ With the mind-words, the crystals gave off a glow in the colors of guilt, awe, and confusion. Mostly awe, this feeling continuing to expand, as one should expect from a child discovering a bright colorful echo chamber. They hadn't gotten to enjoy it earlier because… _because I got scared and ruined it.  
_

Hollow's eye caught one of the small beetle corpses. No, it hadn't been totally their own fault. These bugs chose to attack. Then again, that was a reaction to their territory being invaded.

_"The wyrm invaded my territory and then punished me for defending myself."_

Well, if _she'd_ hate it, then maybe that made it not such a bad thing to do.

They hoped she wouldn't hurt them for thinking that.

_No… do not hope!_

A small hand rested on their forehead. They looked up. Ghost stood over them and gave a slow rub. 

_ It'll be okay.  
_

Ghost was confident enough in this thought that Hollow almost felt like they could believe it too. It felt warm and bright (bright in a good way), even with the uncertainty that couldn't help clouding it.

 _Ah…_ Hollow pushed their head against their sibling's hand, welcoming the show of affection, encouraging more rubs.

Yes. Good. Affection. Warm and nice. Don't have to think about anything else.

Hornet tapped her needle on the ground. "Well? If we're finished here, I'd quite like us to get a move on before we're all petrified."

 _Yes… probably the best idea any of us has had in a while._ Hollow grabbed their nail and stuck it into the ground, bracing against it, standing slowly up…

...And then it snapped and they lost their balance and fell forward again.

Their siblings caught them before they could hit the ground, and helped them toward a natural column they could use to stand up.

Hornet, stunned and wide-eyed, stared down at the broken nail. "Well… this is quite a predicament."

Hollow stared too, numb with disbelief. That didn't really just happen, did it? Not to their nail… the gift from their father upon their last molt, forged with only the finest pale ore, sized and weighted specifically for them... the one thing that had stayed with them since before… the closest thing they'd had to a real friend while they were...

They were afraid to move, to pick up either half of it, as doing so would make this real. Yet, so would leaving it. Would they even be able to get anywhere without it?

Maybe it would be nice to learn to walk again while having a free hand…?

They leaned their forehead against the column and slid their fingers slowly down the cold, smooth crystal, and then nearly lost balance again as something tugged and clambered up their cloak to finally sprawl across their shoulders.

_I have a friend who can maybe fix it._ A blue beetle, much smaller than the stag, with a single horn and a big fluffy white beard. He hammered intently at a small nail on an anvil, determined to reach its perfect form.

The scene shifted, and the nailsmith was now standing at the edge of his very high-up platform, begging them to…

Ghost jumped down off Hollow's shoulders, dissolving the memory before it could finish playing out.

_So… City of Tears, then?_

_ No. He lives with his husband in Greenpath now. Also doesn't smith nails anymore.  
_

_What?!_ Hollow was flabbergasted at that last bit. _Then why would you… why bother mentioning him if he's not…?!_

Ghost was already in the process of carefully sliding the broken nail chunks into their void. It hurt to watch. Bad memories. Hollow looked away.

_I'm... glad he got married, though?_

_Don't know exactly_ _ what that is, but yes.  
_

 _Oh._ Hollow appreciated the small distraction from their fresh tragedy. _Well. It's when… people love each other in a way that… they want to have eggs? But they don't always? And sometimes they throw the eggs into the void?_

They heard a loud sigh from Hornet. "Marriage is the legal union of two bugs, or sometimes more, who wish to commit the rest of their lives to each other, and is usually displayed in the form of an elaborate ceremony. I don't know how anyone accomplishes such a thing in these lawless times, but there you go. Now can we please abscond from this horrid place?"

Huh? Had… she heard them? _Am I talking through the crystals too now?_ They turned their head this way and that, examining the column and nearby crystals from various angles as though they'd see an answer peeking out from somewhere.

_ Not that time. But I think you did.  
_

_Oh. Then how…? Hmm…_

___

Hornet watched her siblings poke and prod at the crystals, whatever patience she may have had fraying away. It figured those two would apparently forget the trouble these rocks had literally just caused, discarding their distress in favor of grublike fascination.

Then again, these crystals had also just proven an unexpected usefulness… was it possible to safely harvest a few of them? It had to be; apparently they used to be made into jewelry and sold in Hallownest, and she'd never heard of anyone becoming crystallized just from owning this jewelry.

She eyed Hollow warily. The state she'd found them in had certainly seemed to affirm her fears about this place, but they seemed now to be relatively little worse for the wear _(Good, because I'm going to throttle them once we're out)_ _._

Getting out may be a problem for them, though; it hadn't escaped her notice that they relied on their nail to help them walk. That stupid voice, the remnant of the Pale King's teachings of being a ruler, nagged at her to sacrifice them for the greater good, to abandon them like both he and his wife had done.

That last part was so easy to forget. The White Lady's attempts at parenting Hornet had been incredibly awkward, but she'd definitely tried… for her own offspring, she'd never made any such effort. Her gentle demeanor, even if not on purpose, had a way of sweeping this fact under the rug.

It didn't matter whether or not either half of the royal couple was still around; Hornet was alone either way in her care for the vessels, which had to mean these feelings were wrong. Right? It didn't matter what she wanted.

This was crazy. It felt so natural by now to treat the vessels as family, but it was also the reason real bugs were still suffering and those in her own homeland saw her as a traitor. It wasn't the fault of the vessels themselves, of course; it was her own mistake for not listening and letting loneliness cloud her judgement.

No, that still didn't account for everything she'd actually seen from them. Like herself, they suffered, loved, wanted a better world. For some reason, they even approached her for affection.

They trusted her to help them. The way they looked at her… though their eyes held that unnerving, endless emptiness, there was also a deep awareness in them, an understanding that she cared for them… that she _loved_ them… and a love for her in return. It was impossible not to see, when you spent time getting to really know them. 

What would she do now if there did come a time to choose between them and everyone else? Actually, wasn't she already doing that? Siding with her personal attachments… that was the wrong thing to do, but for some reason, it happened anyway.

The color of rising dread filled the room. Or rather, the lack of color. This felt familiar to Hornet, the crystals glowing with swirls of gray and dark blue-green light, like a living, omnipresent cloud of hemolymph. It reminded her of the creeping void from back in the remains of the Black Egg, or Ghost's attack on the weavers, but this wasn't just her feral sibling being an overdramatic dingus.

The attackers were heard well before they were seen, a gradually-rising buzz from every direction. Shining spears darted through the air and exploded on impact into deadly-sharp crystal clusters.

"Ghost, what are these-?" Hornet hardly had time to catch her breath as she dodged and parried the projectiles.

Her question was answered as the attackers came into view, as well as a journal page flashing into her mind with a name and drawing.

_Crystal hunters!_

The same bugs whose brethren lay dead and scattered across the rocks… were they one of those species that sent reinforcements in response to "danger" pheromones?

Most importantly, it occurred to her, could her siblings survive this? Ghost didn't have a proper shell for defense, and Hollow no longer had a nail. Why had those two decided to poke around down here in the first place?!

A void tendril lashed out and smacked a hunter out of the air. From next to Ghost, Hollow was catching and throwing some of the flies into the walls with their horns. Even so, these bugs had the advantages of agility and numbers, and the vessels, panting and leaking void (and Hollow's balance already being naturally thrown off on account of the missing arm), were quite visibly nearing their limits!

Hornet skewered a hunter that was dangerously eyeing Ghost from behind, only for another one's crystal dart to catch her in the leg.

She hissed in pain and delivered a shattering kick to the crystal with her other foot. 

_< Please, stop!>_ Hollow's mind-voice echoed through the room, lighting up the crystals similarly to what Ghost had done, but more… directly word-focused. _< We just want to leave.>_

"No. You invade. We defend. You kill. Not okay."

_We… were looking for a friend.  
_

Hornet stood back up, making an effort to keep as much weight as possible off her injured leg. "They won't listen. We've got to run."

Hollow quickly herded Ghost into their cloak, and tried to do the same with Hornet, but she shoved their hand away. "Fool! Making yourself the only target won't help."

They cocked their head in confusion.

Hornet sighed. Perhaps it warranted sympathy that self-sacrifice was their default, but there wasn't time for that now! (And besides, if it weren't for that big jerk always doing this in the first place…!)

"Never mind. Just run!" Hornet jumped out of the way as a crystal shard narrowly missed her, only for the subsequent explosion to knock the wind out of her. She scrambled back to her feet and shot toward a rock growth up ahead, hoping desperately that Hollow would be able to keep up somehow; their powerful headbutt wouldn't make up for them being such a large, unsteady target. But maybe with herself being so small and agile…

Wait!

Hornet darted into an alcove out of the crystal hunters' field of vision, and searched the pockets inside her cloak. Where had she put that charm? It had to be somewhere in here!

An icy panic rose steadily in her chest. No… it wasn't here! She must've dropped it somewhere! She cursed herself for being so irresponsible; the Grimmchild wasn't just a charm, but a friend, and the exact sort of powerful ally the trio needed right now! Not to mention Ghost being closely bonded with it…

Well, its life was likely in no danger, at least, unlike the rest of them. Hornet crawled out of the alcove, at which point a crystal hunter hovered uncomfortably close, only to get punched in the face. 

She leapt away as more of them started to converge, and rolled narrowly away from their projectiles. Then she got back up and shot off again, fighting the sinking feeling that she was probably going even deeper into the accursed cave, fending off more and more of the attackers as she went.

_How are there so many? They can't possibly have all survived the infection… unless the crystals really are… !!!_

She jumped away from a couple more shots, only for her injured leg to give out and send her lurching into another blast. Or was that part of the wall? She couldn't even tell!

 _No!_ Her mind screamed through the searing pain. _I can't let it end like this… not while I have to protect…!_

A fireball shot through the air and smacked a hunter. Hornet swiveled her head around, looking for the source, unsure whether she'd really just seen that.

The crystal hunters buzzed around frantically at the unexpected ambush as more fireballs hurtled in their general direction.

 _< Hornet!>_ Hollow, with Ghost riding on their head, crashed through the crystal growths and flopped down a short distance away from her. _< Don't run off like that!>_

Grimmchild zipped around, shooting and biting the hunters it could catch, clearly enjoying finally being allowed to get out its pent-up energy and attack something.

Well, there was one worry averted!

Hornet took the opportunity to quickly bind her leg injury, and climbed onto Hollow's shoulders. Splitting up had been a stupid idea.

Once she was securely latched on, Hollow stood up slowly, hand on the rock growths for balance, and lumbered forward through the wider tunnels, pausing every so often to punch, kick, or headbutt any crystal-possessed bug that got within range.

_< Why are there so many? Did... she really not…?>_

"It's the crystals. I suspect they're animating the husks even without her influence." Hornet paused to whack a few hunters with her needle. "If that's the case, the ones we kill aren't necessarily staying down."

_No wonder it's so bad every time I come here…_

Hollow swatted away more hunters, and broke into a run.

Hornet wanted to wonder why Ghost would choose to come here more than once, but with everything-

_Watch out!_

Hollow stopped abruptly… and lurched forward, and the three were falling, down, down…

Hornet clutched tightly onto them, launched her needle into the wall. and swung forward. Hollow grabbed at the rocky wall with their claws and slid slowly down.

Then the thread snapped.

The three siblings hit the ground with a thud. Everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to do the Animorphs thought-speak brackets before, but I was afraid AO3 would heck up the formatting like it already does for Ghost's style of speech. But I had to try it once it got to the point where Hollow found a way to talk to Hornet, since at that point it's pretty much the same thing Animorphs does.
> 
> Change log: Tweaked Hollow's new dialogue formatting to make it more easily visible. Also, clarifying that when it's in the brackets, that's where Hornet can hear it. It wasn't like that the first time she reacted because that was Hollow's POV and they didn't know they were doing it.


	13. Unrestful Development

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghost breaks a very important rule. Hollow has a very bad time. Hornet makes the Seer uncomfortable.

Hornet groggily woke up to a trio of tall figures standing over her. In an instant, she was on the alert, bristling, needle leveled and aimed at the group.

They just stood there.

Ah… they were statues. But not just any statues, looking at their faces… and that one's horns… these were the Dreamers.

Hornet felt a pang of guilt for threatening what was left of her mother. Then again, Herrah had always found it hilariously adorable when her tiny daughter would scare someone with a threat display (especially when the Pale King himself had some choice words about the behavior, knowing he'd do nothing about it).

She took a moment to slow her breathing down, then turned toward where her siblings were crumpled on the ground. Unfortunately they weren't the most calming sight just now; Ghost was panting and bleeding void particles into the air, and Hollow, similarly roughed up, was also flat-out unconscious, or at least she hoped that was all they were. She wasn't sure she'd ever get used to their whole "normally not breathing" thing. Grimmchild, meanwhile, curled up on a nearby gravestone to lick itself.

At least she knew where they were now, the one part of Hallownest that had remained a safe haven this whole time. She'd come here from time to time to pay respects and appreciate the calm, peaceful atmosphere, but… never from above. She always walked in. This was the one place her acrobatic antics just felt inappropriate.

Ghost, still bleeding void, was draped across Hollow's side, attempting to nudge them awake. Hornet stepped toward her siblings, ignoring her own various pains, and cradled Hollow's head in her hands. They didn't respond. Her heart felt like it had been punched, and she nuzzled her forehead against theirs and stroked a huge, serrated horn. "I'm sorry I've been short with you. It's only because… well, I don't want to go through losing you again." She reached over toward Ghost and gave them a pat as well. Their void by now had the odd feel of something shifting between liquid and solid. "You ought to take care of yourself. They… probably just need to rest a while." Although if Ghost was worried for their fellow void being, that seemed like more of a sign that worry was in fact warranted.

Hornet nuzzled Hollow again, and was suddenly clonked as they jolted and hissed. She fell back and rubbed her sore forehead. Had she hurt them? No, they were staring at Ghost.

This was so frustrating… she couldn't even be mad at them this time because they'd done nothing but help the group escape exactly as directed, and had done so remarkably well for having their mobility further hindered by their nail snapping on them, but that still didn't erase the fact that they kept making her worry when they didn't need to!

Ghost slid down onto the ground and crawled over to snuggle against Hollow's chest, and Hollow lay their head back down, sort of curled in toward the smaller one. Those two… actually were cute, at least in these types of moments. Hornet's heart ached to join them, but… no. She couldn't act _not_ still mad at Hollow, not yet. They needed to learn. Also her cloak needed mending anyway; it didn't heal itself along with her body like the vessels' seemed to do.

___

The White Palace was quite lovely today. Well, it was really more like the Pink Palace, with all the glowing crystals decorating the walls. A crystal hunter backed into a particularly sharp formation and exploded.

_They're still not aspids._

Ghost snorted, which at their size, sounded less like a snort and more like a grub sneezing adorably. _They're annoying and they fly and shoot things. They're aspids._

_No. These are beetles. Aspids are flies. Does your creature journal really not mention that?_

Ghost didn't seem to have a reply to this. Unfortunately, something else did. An all-too-familiar buzz started faintly and gradually grew louder from every direction, including directions that didn't exist. 

Crystallized aspids crawled out from cracks in the walls. 

Hollow stood perfectly still. _Don't move. Maybe they can't see us._

The crystal aspids crawled on the walls, occasionally twitching wings or grooming a front leg.

Hollow felt a weight rubbing itself against the jagged edge of one of their horns.

_I'm sorry. The itching. It's bad._

It really was. Hollow could feel it too now. Millions of hairs scratching at the void barrier, desperate to escape, to burst into the open air, to breathe. The claustrophobic tightness of that barrier over their whole body; Hollow remembered this part well, yet the rising panic and confusion of the first time flooded back into them at full force, wondering what was happening to them, if this was what dying for real felt like, if anything like this ever happened to anyone else or was it just something they brought onto themselves somehow or…

Hollow doubled over and fell onto the ground, causing Ghost to tumble as well.

The fear and itching faded, and Hollow tilted their head ever so slightly to look at the aspids on the walls, nestled between the pulsing orange bubbles. The aspids stared back. 

One by one, and gradually more at a time, the aspids took to the air. 

They began to fire.

A storm of crystal shards rained violently from every angle. Hollow, their mind too rushed to think of anything else, grabbed the side of their cloak and held it up as a shield. Sharp pink daggers pierced through it, just short of splitting their face open. More shards pounded into their back, arms, legs…

A buzzing and sick churning now emanated from inside them. Their internal void did a flip, causing them to lurch forward and throw up. Chunks of crystal and infection scratched at their throat and littered the void splatter on the ground.

At this point, the scar tissue that covered their side was writhing, splitting apart… releasing more crystal aspids…

 _Please… please just end me!_ Too weak to protect anyone, yet also somehow too weak to die... _Please…_

A flash of yellow light.

Hollow peeked out from under their own cloak. Ghost was zipping back and forth, exploding the aspids with searing light beams. It hurt to watch. Naturally, Hollow watched anyway.

Ghost jumped back next to Hollow and paused to look at them. _Sorry you still got hurt. But there were so many._

Hollow couldn't register this sentiment, however, nor the fact that they'd jumped to self-preservation instead of protecting Ghost. No, they were presently preoccupied with a pain deep in their void-gut, worse than the aspids bursting out, at the sight of their small sibling now coated in shiny, silvery fur, cloak flared like a pair of wings…

 _I TOLD YOU, GO AWAY!_ Hollow scrambled back and fumbled for their nail… it was gone! No! _YOU ALREADY TOOK EVERYTHING. YOU CAN'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE! YOU CAN'T HAVE ME AGAIN!_

The Moth shrank back.

Good; it was weak! Hollow lowered their head and rushed forward to grab it with their horns and throw it smack into the wall, hard enough to make a large crack.

It slumped down in a daze, wings tattered, tufts of fur dislodged, a horn cracked.

_You die now._

They picked up a particularly long crystal shard and staggered toward the Moth, ready to plunge the blade in and truly end the threat.

"Excuse me, what is going on here?"

Another flash of light, but softer than before, and… coming from someone else?

A second moth! No! This couldn't be… she couldn't multiply! That couldn't be allowed!

 _I'll kill you too!_ Hollow, shaking with rage and panic, swiveled the blade toward the second moth.

"You're welcome to try, but I think you really need-"

The blade went right through her middle.

"Well, that was rude." She fell to the ground, fluttered weakly, and dissolved into individual light particles.

_Um… okay, what just happened?_

The whole place then began to dissolve into a single cloud of light, which then was dispersed with widening streaks of darkness, and then there was only darkness.

___

Dark and cool colors came together now, forming shapes, becoming increasingly more defined and intricate. Statues… memorials? A soft, soothing glow of blue and purple that seemed to come from nowhere in particular. An air of peace they'd long forgotten could exist anywhere.

Hornet standing nearby with her needle out, shaking and panting. Ghost, still void-coated as they should be, awkwardly propped against a rock, in a puddle of their own void, in a straight trajectory from Hollow's outstretched foot.

 _Ah…_ Worry, shame, and embarrassment overtook the large vessel. _I'm… I'm so sorry._

"Good to see you not waving around an implement of destruction. Though it would seem such tendencies run in the family..."

Who was… ah, that voice! The second moth! They were still in the dream?! _Show yourself! I'll kill you as many times as I have to!_

She didn't respond to the threat. However, from the direction the voice had come from, was _a_ moth, various shades of purple, hunched over, roughly the size of most bugs. Not the big, elegant, glowy one they'd stabbed… unless…?

Ghost, apparently having taken this time to heal from being sleep-kicked, rushed up and hugged the purple moth, burying their face in her soft-looking fluff. Hollow couldn't help noticing the dim light reflecting off of Ghost's own fluff… no, that had to be a remnant of the dream. Not real. Right?

"Haha, always nice to see you too, my friend." She broke away from the hug. "You don't have the Dream Nail anymore, do you?"

They looked down and shook their head.

 _Dream Nail… that's how they… got to_ her _, isn't it?_

"It seems you've practically become one now, though… I never expected that. Perhaps that's what spurred your growth spurt? After all, that thing was close to your old height when charged up… ah..." She walked a short distance away and sat down.

Ghost stared after her for a second, then dashed toward Hollow.

Hollow reflexively jerked away, not sure whether to be afraid or comforting right now; they never wanted to hurt their sibling, but that dream… the sheer anger, the sharp crystal nail aimed for… not the Moth, but the reckless-but-friendly little vessel who just wanted to love them and keep them safe…

Hornet, now relaxed and with her needle sheathed, walked toward Ghost and sighed. "Did you forget about what would likely happen if you two were to fall asleep together?"

Ghost backed away.

"You can't expect them to want you in their space after that."

 _Hey… I'm not the innocent one here!_ _I'm the one who hurt them._

Ghost hung their head and glanced at Hollow, then sprinted away. Grimmchild flew off after them, nyaah-ing in protest at their abrupt departure.

Hornet sat down next to Hollow and rubbed their head, but it didn't help their mood this time. It just made them feel more guilty. They couldn't even tell her what happened, either, without the crystals around to channel their thought-words into. So they turned their gaze to the purple moth, hoping maybe she'd have something to say.

"You don't need to fear me, tall child. I'm just a fluffy old moth… who of course happens to be highly experienced in the dream realm… the Seer of my long-gone tribe. In any case, that other one seems to really enjoy my company for some reason."

Hornet scoffed. "Don't bother depreciating yourself; you've probably never even stabbed them."

The moth started to say something, glanced back and forth with unease between the two siblings, then decided maybe a subject change was in order.

She turned back to Hollow and paced back and forth, examining them but keeping some distance, some respect for the fact that they weren't exactly the most comfortable with having a fluffy, winged bug getting close to them! The fact that she was friends with Ghost only made her all the more unsettling; how do you even process information like this that shouldn't be possible? How could a moth be a friend when Hollow had literally never known one that didn't torture them? Could they even still consider Ghost a friend?

"Hmm, yes… there's a lot to unpack with you, isn't there? Troubling indeed, haunted by memories with which no one should've ever been burdened…"

_Indeed… I was supposed to be "no one." That was the point of the void._

It had almost worked, from what they'd been able to piece together. While vaguely aware of their origin, they lacked any comprehensible memory of it. You can't remember things from before you had a mind, at least not consciously, not as much more than hints of ancient instincts; they realized that now. What would it have taken for them to remain empty? Was there any way to ever know that?

"You're the one he said was empty, aren't you? His attempt at an ultimate weapon to finally stop the war… or to merely suspend it until another one of his weird dead kids showed up to do all the work? I'm not sure what he really thought would happen."

Hollow tensed up in preparation for another barrage of trash talk against their father. _He wanted to save his kingdom. He wanted me to save it. I needed to._

"You'd best watch how you speak of the king," Hornet warned. "While I personally have little stake in such talk, the Hollow Knight has… honestly a worrying degree of loyalty toward him, and I won't be held responsible if you should happen to meet the consequences of that."

It hurt to be reminded of their sister's disdain for the king, even if she'd said she didn't hate him. Even if there were reasons why she would. But it was a relief to know she'd support them anyway.

"I understand, yes." There was a certain weight behind these words that made sense, yet felt somehow wrong to consider.

This was so confusing. That was one of _her_ people. They remembered her showing them what she'd lost, vaguely but well enough…hadn't this one been especially close to her? How could they trust this moth? Why was Hornet, of all people, trusting her?

They didn't want to be around Ghost right now either, but the company of a fellow vessel, even a truly dangerous one, had to be more comforting than… whatever this was. At least with Ghost, they always knew what was going on in the moment.

Arm shaking, they pushed against the ground and slowly got to their knees, put one foot forward, started to stand… and then doubled back down as a wave of pain overtook them.

"Oh…!" The Seer rushed toward them, causing them to flinch. "Is that- are you bleeding?" She looked at Hornet. "Is that normal for them?"

"Yes; it's called void, and no, they should NOT BE MOVING ABOUT…" Hornet was glaring daggers, just _daring_ them to try to stand again.

They glared back, warning that they'd try again just to spite her. Panting in pain as they were, though, they couldn't have looked as defiant as they intended.

"Listen to your sister, dear. She's gone through so much more for you than most people would for anyone." Then more quietly, the Seer muttered "And more than _some_ people for even their own god…"

That was probably true… defeated, Hollow sank back to the ground and stretched their arm out pitifully. They glanced at Hornet and twitched their fingers to emphasize their sorry state so that she might have mercy on them.

The Seer cocked her head. "That one hasn't always been so contrary, has it?" 

"Not at all. Just…" Hornet gave a loud sigh. "...always stubborn and thick-headed in every other possible way."

 _Oh, and you aren't?_ Not that they'd actually say that to her… well, no, maybe they would. As much as they loved her, as readily as they would die for her (as if there was any way she'd let them get away with that), they had to admit she'd been kind of grating on them lately.

The Seer seemed to pick up on Hornet's lingering unease at being called Hollow's sister. "Honestly, the resemblance would be obvious to anyone. Besides, you know I'm well aware of who the Dreamers were." Her tone suggested she had some choice words about them that were probably better kept to herself. 

Hornet paused to consider this; their relation wasn't information with which she'd trust just anyone, after the Deepnest debacle, but the Seer, while clearly harboring a longtime bitterness, didn't seem like she'd care to do anything bad with it. "Right, well… I've got a lot of work elsewhere that I should really be getting back to, but unfortunately I can't seem to leave this miscreant alone without some sort of catastrophe befalling them."

The Seer sighed and shook her fluff. "Well, if their dreams are anything to go by, leaving us alone together may well put _my_ safety at risk, but go take care of your business, I suppose."

"Oh please; they're mostly harmless as long as you're not stupid."

Shame and guilt washed over Hollow as they curled in and buried their face in their elbow. No wonder everyone was mad at them; they really had been grossly irresponsible and hurt people who didn't even do anything wrong, and it didn't matter why they did it; there was no excuse for that! Harming innocents was the opposite of everything they were supposed to be! And it never would've happened if they'd been good at their job in the first place…

Hornet gave them a half-hearted pat on the head, then pushed their cloak back to scope out and bandage whatever new or reopened wounds she'd have to take care of.

They weakly nudged her away with their face, attempting to tell her to just go and do what she needed to.

"Don't. I can't very well leave you without at least trying to make sure you won't be completely dead when I return."

Hollow lay their head limply back on the ground and let Hornet bandage them back up. It wouldn't do either of them any good to prevent her from caring for them, if she insisted on doing so.

She paused and pressed lightly on part of the scarring. It squished a little under her hands. "Please tell me you've been simply unaware that this isn't shell substance, and will use this information to be more careful going forward…"

They couldn't honestly tell her that… maybe, then, it was a good thing they didn't have a way to tell her otherwise either. Not that she'd have that much faith in them anyway, of course.

She finished up the bandaging, gave them a quick pat, and stood up. "I will be back to check on you. Don't go anywhere." To the Seer, she stopped and said "Don't let them go anywhere" and then walked away.

Again speechless, the Seer stared after Hornet until she was gone, and then at Hollow, then took a breath and shook her fluff again. "Unbelievable… could've at least asked me if you could stay here, but no, I'm just suddenly a babysitter." She paused and took a cautious step forward. "Can't exactly say she's wrong to fuss over you, though. Your whole arm's gone; have you at least noticed that?"

Hollow huffed in response. C _ome on; that's just a flesh wound!_

_____

The Blue Lake should've been the nicest place in Hallownest. It had the same quiet, calming atmosphere as the Resting Grounds proper, but also beautiful blue water to swim and splash in, and sand to sift through your fingers. Even the small vengefly colony here tended to stay well out of the way (and who knew if they were still around anyway?)

Now, though… Quirrel's nail stood stuck in the ground where he'd left it. Thanks to Ghost's accumulated numbness with the Grey Mourner's anguished cries every time, it was decorated with a small halo of delicate flowers draped over the hilt. It was a bittersweet sort of comfort to come here and still feel close to their old friend, wherever he was… but right now, it just made them feel more alone than ever. Hollow would probably never trust them again, and Hornet… well, she was just generally Hornet. Comfort wasn't her thing.

At least they still had Grimmchild. It was pretty fun watching the cute little guy pounce on the splashes, complain when it ended up in the water, and then dart at the next one.

They stopped to scratch again. The itching was worse than ever now, particularly the fur growing in around their neck. They stretched out on the ground and rolled around vigorously, staining the sand with an alarming amount of sloughed-off void, revealing more of the shiny silvery color of the fluffy ruff. They ran back to the lake and slid in, hoping the water would alleviate the itching and tickling, but sadly this was just regular water and not hot spring water… it did feel good, though. Water was fun regardless of where it was (except in the Royal Waterways, but that was mostly because of all the aggressive flying sets of teeth that lived there).

Why was this even happening? Were they turning into a moth? Did this happen to Grimmchild every time it grew? Was it why the Radiance was so angry? But tiktiks were fluffy too, and even infected, they were some of the most docile creatures. How did they do it? None of this made any sense!

Maybe all vessels were just cursed with some kind of especially horrible suffering even if they survived the trials of the world around them. Hollow had managed to grow up hairless, but the price they paid for that was… well, everything else in their terrible tragedy of a life.

Something crawled onto their back and rustled the fluff. Startled, they flipped around and heard a yelp and a splash.

Grimmchild poked its head out of the water, paddled around in front of them, and hissed.

Ghost extended a hand toward their friend in apology, carefully so as to hopefully not get bitten. Grimmchild only turned its nose up at the gesture. Sadly and slowly, Ghost started to turn back around to swim back to the shore, at which point Grimmchild growled, grabbed their wrist with its teeth, and crawled up to rest on top of their head, wings hanging down with their tips trailing in the water. _Thanks for staying with me._

Though they could feel the general idea of Grimmchild's thoughts, the specifics weren't decipherable as anything that made sense, instead shrouded in disconcerting abstract imagery that evoked some unnamed primal fear, yet struck a chord of familiarity… ah yes, Grimm's nightmare domain. An endless cycle of mass death, fire, cannibalism, and rebirth, like a wyrm devouring its own tail. A contractual sort of bond with whoever wore its charm, more so than an emotional one (not to say the child felt nothing for its companions, of course; just that the specific nature of the bond wasn't quite mutual). But more importantly, it wanted to snuggle into that fluff ruff.

Ghost crawled onto the shore and rolled lazily onto their back. Grimmchild slid into the sand, shook itself off, and promptly began to preen its friend's shiny new fuzziness, chittering in contentment and glad to not be getting a mouthful of void.

"Ah, there you are." The Seer slid her head into their field of vision and stared. She looked like she'd been in a scuffle, covered in scratches, fur disheveled, antennae bent at multiple angles. "I figured you would be here, since you made such an unsightly mess on the way."

Ghost sat up and looked back across the beach. The place was littered with a surprising amount of void patches that had been scratched off. Cleanup would be easy enough; all they'd have to do was shine a light on it, but it was annoying that it hadn't all evaporated by now and that the shedding of all that void wasn't even their choice.

Farther back, they could see Hollow slowly and clumsily lumbering in on all threes.

"Anyway. Listen. Your sister left me in charge of the big baby. Naturally, without giving me any choice in the matter, because why should I ever be involved in any decision that affects my own life?" She shook her head. "The point is, she told me not to let the big one go anywhere, but that sucker's got nasty spooks toward my kind, not that I can't see why, and hits like a runaway tram."

Ghost tilted their head and stared at her, as she seemed to be proposing a very bad idea.

"Yes, I realize you likely won't fare much better in your current form, but you two clearly already know each other, and I highly doubt you've survived this long by having friendly tea parties with your foes." She eyed Grimmchild with suspicion. "And we'll have to have a talk about that one later."

By now, Hollow had stopped, collapsed around the middle of the beach. They gestured with their head for the Seer to step aside, then fixed their gaze directly on Ghost.

_Sorry. But we need to talk. Alone._


End file.
